Duality
by BrokenElemental
Summary: To think that good and evil are absolute is delusional. There's no fine line to cross. It is all situational. Starts in Kanto; Eventual heavy Rocket involvement. WIP
1. Instinct

There are worse places to grow up than the rocky, infertile plains and treacherous mountainsides surrounding Pewter City. Food is scarce, the wildlife is dangerous and unpredictable, and when it's not suffering a drought, the storms can leave you housebound for days. Pewter isn't a place that forgives, or even tolerates, weakness.

And that's why I love it.

The world we're in isn't any place for the weak. Not one of us living on this plane of existence chose to be born to it, and not all of us can cope with the struggle of working, fighting, and loving among monsters. And I'm not just talking Pokemon, though we'll get to them. Surprisingly, many of the biggest monsters I've met have been other people. And if I hadn't had that foundation of strength beaten into me by the rugged wastelands of Pewter, I'd be buried so deep noone save Digglet would find me.

It all really got started the night I nearly had my head ripped off.

\\-/-\\-/-\\-/

My full name is Calvin Stone. I know, ha ha, last name stone, figures for someone who lived in the number one stone export depot of Kanto. However, my family immigrated from Hoenn when I was but a babe. It was during a period of excessive PokeTeam violence; well, more excessive than is usual for that region, anyhow, and offshoots of the Stone family were being targeted specifically, being practically royalty. It's why I don't look like a Pewter native; I'm not. Paler skin, lighter hair, too tall, even. You wouldn't think height to be a disadvantage in life, but when you're dodging rock throws from unfriendly geodude or bending down all day to pick gnarled excuses for carrots, it doesn't help.

Despite my physical differences and overall growth-induced clumsiness, the local kids tolerated me. They'd even occassionally invite me to the outskirts of town to play tag, hide-and-go-seek, or to throw things at other things just for the hell of it. Truly, childhood is a magical time. Our favorite place was an abandoned Onix nesting field. Plenty of trenches or piles of rubble for hiding, and debris for throwing. It was close enough to the city limits to be relatively pokemon-free; the odd non-docile Rattata or Ekans easily driven off with some stick waving and yelling.

As the neighborhood kids and I grew, however, that field became less a place for fun and games, and more a place to loiter, smoke herbs, and drink whatever excuse for alcohol our local 'breweries' could whip up that month. The adults didn't care; my mother did nothing but sulk and live off what she had saved along with what I could bring in from farming and lugging granite from the mines, and my father didn't survive the trip from Hoenn. I had, occasionally, asked her what happened to him; never got an answer out of her, though eventually I did find out.

Anyways, one evening my pal Bernard and I got our hands on some halfway decent brew. Well, I say we; he got it, a present from his older brother, our resident Gym Leader, Brock. It was also a bit of a bribe; Bernard and I were 16 and in one year we'd be old enough to join the local Rangers and work under the Pewter Gym, protecting the city from bandits, rampaging beasts, and covert incursions from the surrounding cities. They were always trying to draw on what little resources we had for their own benefit. Brock wanted us to enlist. He needed all the help he could get, as the job wasn't a particularly safe one. Often Rangers took their pokemon for a late night patrol and just never ended up coming back.

Even with the mortality rate, it was a more appealing prospect than lugging rocks for all time. Barely. So, bemoaning our lives as only two sloshed teenagers can, we staggered around the Onix Field.

"Caaalvin! Sunshhetting!" Bernard shout-slurred almost directly into my ear. He reached up and grabbed me roughly by the shoulder.

"Bernard, I canshee that! Leme'go," I replied, barely more literate. "We'll head homee inaminute."

To this, Bernard nodded in a wise, sage manor, and reached up to stroke what I assume was an imaginary beard. He held up his other hand, opened his mouth, and promply tripped and fell into a nearby ditch. This, of course, was met by uproarious laughter from the both of us; a pidgey flew out from a local shrub, though from fear or annoyance, I'll never know. I shuffled over to help him, still chuckling to myself.

The side of the ditch proved difficult for my drunken mind to navigate; after a minute or so of effort, I managed to slide my way down backwards, scraping up my stomach and igniting some additional laughter. Upon helping Bernard stand, and looking at the side of the ditch, we realized climbing back out in our current state wouldn't be easy, so we decided to walk down a ways and see if there was a lower wall to pull ourselves up on.

Darkness around Pewter isn't like darkness around a real city, like say Saffron or Rustboro. Power is scarce, so all but emergency lighting for the gym and border towers is turned off at night. This, on anything but a full moon, means it's pitch black. The stars do nothing. If they had, maybe things would have turned out differently.

"Oof!" yelled Bernard, accompanied by the telltale thud of a body falling on something hard.

"Yookay buddy?!" I yelled from a bit back in the trench; we'd walked a little while with no luck on an easier exit.

"Yeah," Bernard groaned, "just-"

He was cut off by a sort of screeching roar, and there was a wet crunch of bone. I froze. Bernard screamed, drowning out the roar for a moment before there was an awful SNAP, and silence.

I didn't move, or make any noise. Just stared into the blackness where my friend had fallen. There was a shuffling sound, and I could just barely make out a short, humanoid shape growing closer. I took a step back. And of course, tripped and fell on my ass, causing me to cry out in pain and surprise. The figure roar-screeched again and jumped at me, so quickly it seemed to just appear in front of my face. From so close I could see wide, flat teeth, blank crimson eyes, a ridge atop it's head, and so much blood. It grabbed me by the neck and threw me, and I blacked out.

\\-/-\\-/-\\-/

Pokemon Centers are one of the few buildings in any mid-to-large sized settlement that actually receive League funding. They're not just for injured Pokemon; they're for any living thing, from your uncle to your dog. Every specially-trained Nurse Joy holds within her hospital walls extraordinarily advanced healing technology, potions and sprays that can fix up burns and gashes with no scarring, antidotes for every known poison and then some. And on top of the medical care, there are several floors of empty bedrooms where Pokemon Trainers get to stay, on the taxpayers dime. You know trainers. Those people who travel to and fro challenging Gym Leaders (and eachother) to Pokemon sparring matches to increase their own strength and get a chance at leadership or League employment. Crazy people.

Yet with all that advanced science, funding, and prestige, the human hospital beds are so Arceus-damned uncomfortable.

That's where I found myself, alone, with wires and tubes attached to various parts of my body and my head firmly secured to my shoulders by some kind of metallic monstrosity. There was a TV in the corner, muted, playing a rerun of one of last year's Pokemon Conference matches; looked to be a Nidorino versus a Gengar, though the damn thing was phasing through the air so fast it was hard to tell. I spied the remote on my bedside table and decided to turn the volume up a bit; maybe the announcers would know.

My arm wouldn't move. I couldn't grab it. I tried the other arm. Both legs. No response, couldn't move them at all. That's when the panic really set in; I tried to call for a nurse, but though I could move my face and jaw somewhat, my vocal cords refused to work. In short, I was completely trapped, and quite possibly paralyzed for life.

About a half hour of freaking out and staring at the TV later (turns out it WAS a gengar), the nurse walked in and smiled brilliantly at me, for no apparent reason.

"Mr. Stone! How are you this morning? Oh, no need to answer that, silly me," she giggled, pissing me the hell off. What kind of bedside manner is that to a paralyzed man? "You were out for quite a while! And will be out again soon, I'm afraid; we've fixed most of the damage to your right leg and ribs, but your neck is a bit beyond healing!"

If I could have throttled her for the jovial way she said that, I would've. As it was, it was all I could do to keep from crying. My life was over. Even if my mother could find some way of keeping me on life support, I'd never move again. No more walking, or alcohol, or opportunities for the finer things in life...

"Ah, oh, I almost forgot!" the nurse exclaimed, slapping her forehead. "The ditto cells we ordered from Viridian should be here in a couple days, and then we can work on regrowing your nerve endings and spinal cord. Isn't modern science wonderful?"

She gave me one last grin, and practically skipped out of the room. Then, in equal parts shock and relief, I once again passed out.

When I next awoke, I had a visitor.

Brock Satoshi himself sat on a nearby chair, his head in his hands. I tried to make a noise, to let him know I was awake, but I found that I still couldn't. So instead, I stared.

What I could see of his face looked worn, like he hadn't slept in days. His close-cropped brown hair was as in-dissaray as such a short haircut could be, and his clothing was stained and wrinkled. I wondered why.

After a few moments, Brock glanced up and saw my eyes open. I got a half smile, and a "Hey, Calvin."

I tried to nod, but couldn't. So I wiggled my eyebrows a bit.

"I'd ask how you're holding up, but the nurse filled me in. You're gonna be just fine. You're one of the lucky ones," Brock said. He held the half smile for a second longer, and then his expression crumpled into one of exceptional sadness. He looked away.

It just didn't make sense that Brock would visit me here, when I'd just be out in a few days. We were never particularly close; I'd met him a few times through Bernard, but...

Oh. Bernard. 'One of the lucky ones'. I made the connection, and was hit by a wave of despair. One night of drinking in a supposedly safe field, one false step into the wrong ditch, had cost Brock's brother his life. No wonder he was so distraught.

I'd have loved to have attempted to comfort him, to say it had been quick, to at least offer my condolences. But all I could do at that moment was look really upset.

We stayed like that awhile, me laying there, Brock occasionally sobbing. After he had pulled himself together, he once again looked me in the eye and said, "We caught the beast that did it." He shook his head in disgust. "It was a Machop. Half starved. Damn thing had taken a few good bites out of him when we..."

Brock took several deep breaths.

"They're usually so docile, Machop. You guys didn't attack it, right? You didn't provoke it?" I quickly glanced back and forth, to simulate shaking my head no. Brock seemed to understand.

"It's been killed. It won't hurt anyone else," he said. "Anything you need, after you're healed up, Calvin. You come see me."

Brock gave me one last, sad look, and walked out of my room.

I cried.

\\-/-\\-/-\\-/

The couple of days till my transplant went by quite quickly, and soon I found myself in the recovery ward, gaining strength back in my limbs. The residing nurse here was a far cry from the bubbly, joyous nurse I had previously; this one was intensely serious and grim, and when she checked up on my reflexes and muscle memory, it was like she was on my deathbed.

I wondered if perhaps the PokeCenter had mixed up those two nurses on the roster.

But, after a modified potion injection and a few hours recovery, I was headed home on my own two feet, a note of prescribed exercises in hand and a clean bill of health.

We had one of the smaller houses in town; surprisingly close to what excuse Pewter had for a business center, but cheap and run down. The walls were gray, the door was a lighter gray, and the windows, where not broken and taped up, were dirty enough to be gray. I have to take some responsibility for that; it was my house too, even if I was barely ever home. But really, my mother did nothing but sit around in there and mope; the least she could have done was cleaned things up. I creaked open the front door and yelled up the stairs.

"MOM! Your son's not paralyzed anymore!"

There wasn't a response. Figures.

I stumbled up the stairs; the handrail had fallen off long ago, and my muscle control still wasn't perfect, so they were a bit of an obstacle. Then I walked over to my mother's bedroom, and opened the door.

As per usual, there she lay. Blankets were layered on her scrawny frame; a dish of relatively fresh food, barely touched, sat on her nightstand. At least she'd eaten something this time. "Hey, mom."

She stirred, and glanced up at me with squinted eyes. "Oh, hello, honey. How was work?"

I sighed. "Mom, I've been gone for a week. I was in the hospital."

My mom's eyebrows raised, and she looked me over quickly. Then she said, "That's nice, dear," and closed her eyes again.

I shook my head, left her bedroom, and limped down the hall to mine. It wasn't a place I saw all too often. Whenever I could find a friend willing to let me stay over, or an excuse to stay out all night and rest intermittently during the day, I took it. And it's no wonder, with how upsetting the place was. A dusty black blanket on a small mattress in the corner, a dresser full of old and often torn clothing, a closet with the only real things I owned in the world; interesting rocks I'd found, a raticate tooth necklace, a couple broken pokeballs, and an old Pokemon encyclopedia. When I was a kid I had spent hours reading that, committing everything in it to memory; it only had species native to Johto and Kanto, but I had dreamed of traveling all over someday. Of being someone that mattered. But instead I was stuck in that dead end home, with an uncaring parent, and a dead best friend.

Maybe it was the near death experience, or the loss of one of the last things tying me to that city. Whatever it was, I realized then I needed to get out. I had no idea how, but it had to happen. Else I was going to die in that city. If not from a pokemon, then from sheer depression.

Curled up on my tiny bed, I stared at the ceiling, leg throbbing, thinking. Tomorrow, I decided. Tomorrow I'll go see Brock, and ask if he knows what I could do.

\\-/-\\-/-\\-/

The Pewter Gym wasn't huge or flashy like most others. It was a sturdy, compact building, made primarily of stone. The looks were meant to convey the philosophy of the gym; things don't need to be pretty, or excessive, they need to be supported, kept solid, to weather the stuff that life throws at us. And no doubt, if a true hurricane were ever to hit Pewter, that building would be the last thing standing.

After being stopped at the entrance and showing the guard my non-trainer ID, I was allowed to go in. The lighting was low; it took a moment for my eyes to adjust. When they did, I saw a decent sized, sandy arena, with platforms off to the side full of freeweights and workout machinery. There were a few people here and there, lifting the weights or sparring on the sand. There were even a few pokemon out; a rather tough looking sandshrew was using some kind of weighted jumprope in the corner, and a geodude was relaxing by a pedestal in the far back. On that pedestal sat Brock, the man I came to see. I veered off to the side and walked past the weights on the platforms, steering clear of the sparring.

As I approached, the geodude looked up and growled. It sounded like rocks grinding together, and it awoke Brock from what I assume was his slumber; he tends to keep his eyes very narrowed when in his gym, supposedly to keep them adjusted to low light levels, but I know he sneaks naps every once in awhile.

"None of that, geodude." Brock scolded. The pokemon looked as suitably ashamed as a rock can. "Calvin! Welcome to the gym, glad to see you back on your feet. What can I do for you?"

"Hey Brock." I said, glancing about uncomfortably. I was never all that good at asking for advice, and as a 16 year old kid, everything you do is pretty awkward. "Listen, I've gotta ask you something."

Brock looked at me expectantly, and I took a moment to study him. He still had lines and bags under his eyes, but he had changed his clothes and his hair wasn't as wild. It looked like he was coping, somehow.

"I need to..." I began, and thought better of it. "My life here isn't the best, and I was wondering if you knew how I could..."

"How you could?" Brock asked, focusing all his attention on me.

I took a deep breath. "Being almost killed really opened my eyes to the fact that I might not have that long here. I'm tired of being so weak and upset, I'm tired of going home to be a parent to my own mother, I'm absolutely sick of carting rocks and pulling half-dead crops and barely making ends meet. And I was wondering if you knew how I could go about not... doing those things."

Brock regarded me silently for a moment, and then stood up. He motioned for me to follow him, and we walked through a door in the back, ending up in a small office with comfortable looking leather chairs and a stone desk. He sat behind it, and motioned for me to sit as well. The chairs were very comfortable.

We stared at eachother for a moment. Then Brock said, "Did you know that Bernard's dream, ever since he was a kid... was to be a Pokemon trainer?"

I shook my head and frowned at the mention of my deceased friend. I'd learned that he had a closed casket burial a few days before my operation. I'll always regret not being able to be there.

"But he was the closest thing I had to a son, with our age difference," Brock continued. " I had hoped one day he could take the reigns of the gym, and so I pushed for him not to get his trainer's license, and instead join me in the Rangers. He didn't like it, but he was going to do it, for me. I wonder now if I made the wrong decision." Brock stared me intensely in the eyes. "But maybe I can make up for it."

"What do you mean?" I asked, fighting tears.

"How would you like to be given a trainer's license, Calvin?"

I gasped. A trainer's license cost thousands of Poke, which is why I and many of the poorer citizens of the region never got one. We just never had the money. However, to be just given one? I didn't know how to react. So, I said, "But... I don't have a starter Pokemon."

Brock laughed. "That's easily remedied, bud. Hold on." He rummaged through his desk drawer for a moment, and pulled out an odd looking pokeball. It had a blue top, with red lines. "This is a Great Ball. Worth quite a bit, and it's practically guaranteed to catch any Pokemon in the local area. Only has trouble with the powerful ones. You go out this afternoon, find a Pokemon and throw it, then come right back here and we'll get you started training, then send you off south, to visit Professor Oak for a Pokedex."

I was in awe. I took the ball and held it reverently, and said, "Thank you so much. But you, you would just give this all to me?"

Brock nodded. "For Bernard."

I wasn't about to let this much good fortune go to waste. So, thanking him again quite profusely, I hobbled out of the gym cradling my Great Ball, and headed to the outskirts of town, near the more wooded area to the east. It wasn't a thick forest, has nothing on Viridian, but it had plenty of weak pokemon just waiting to be my starter. I had no idea what I'd go for, but whatever it was, I'd get it fast; I had no desire to hang around a bunch of wild pokemon after my last experience.

Finally reaching the forest, I limp-jogged straight away from the well travelled path, into the parts where pokemon most made their dens. I was so excited that I didn't watch where I was going, and stumbled into several bushes and small trees, scaring away Rattata and Sentret. I didn't want either of them, though. Far too common.

After a while of rampaging about aimlessly, I decided to take a breather. I leaned up against a tree, and stared at the great ball in my hands. Soon, very soon, my first friend on a journey that would last my entire life would be in it. I was so focused, I didn't notice an inquisitive pokemon drawing closer and closer, wanting a look at the shiny ball for itself. In fact, I didn't see it till it was directly in front of me, and then I let out a shocked yell and stumbled back.

A wide, flat toothed mouth, red, curious eyes, and a bony ridge along the top of its skull. I didn't think, I just reacted, and threw the Great Ball straight at it's head. The ball opened, and with a flash of light the creature was sucked into it. The ball wobbled once, twice, three times, then blinked red and lay still.

I had just caught a Machop.


	2. Acceptance

There are times in life where you think you've made a huge mistake, and also know you've got to run with it. Consequences can be overcome, in time, and there can even be unexpected benefits. Unfortunately back then I wasn't the wisest of mistake-makers. I stood there for a while unable to come to terms with what had happened. Then, I shoved the great ball into my backpack and started to run.

It was twilight when I got back to the Pewter gym, the grays and browns of the city somehow becoming even more washed-out. The guard from earlier was still on shift and so I was able to sprint past her without being stopped. I noticed that the place was empty. The gym trainers must have gone home for the night. I cut straight across the arena and pounded on Brock's office door, to which I heard a muffled "Come in."

Brock was still sitting in his chair, furiously typing on a small laptop, which was (of course) a shiny gray. Upon seeing me his face lit up, and he said "Calvin! Welcome back, have you gotten your starter already?"

I opened and closed my mouth a few times, and asked, "Is it possible to release a pokemon from the great ball and reuse it?"

Brock's grin faded. "No, I'm afraid not. Any variety of PokeBall is one time use only. Why?"

"I..." I gulped. "I accidentally caught a machop. It just snuck up on me and I threw the ball without thinking and it turned red and I didn't mean to but-"

"Calvin!" Brock said, cutting off my stammered excuses. I froze with my mouth open and we stared at eachother for a few moments before he spoke.

"A machop is a good pokemon. Usually fairly pacifistic, which is good for someone with so little experience, and a true powerhouse when well cared for. I, being primarily a rock trainer, would not be your best bet for helping start to train it, but I've got a few fighting-type specialists in my rangers who can help."

I shook my head, and loudly said "But I can't train a machop! Not after... what happened. It wouldn't be right!"

"You've got no choice in the matter!" Brock yelled. "You caught it, you have a responsibility to that pokemon! It's your only ticket out of here, Calvin, I can't afford to give you anything else. Either you take that machop with you, or release it to me and lose your one shot to be a trainer."

At this point I slumped into one of his comfy chairs and put my head in my hands. I was conflicted. There was nothing more important to me at that moment than taking advantage of the opportunities I had been given, but... could I raise a machop? Could I look into those blood red eyes and trust that that creature could protect me from a world of monstrous threats? I didn't know.

Lost as I was in my own thoughts, I didn't hear Brock stand up and around his desk to me. I jumped when he put his hand on my shoulder, and looked up, straight into his slate-black eyes.

"Bernard wouldn't mind, Cal. It's okay."

He pulled his hand back, and I stood up. Somehow we ended up in a manly embrace, and for the second time that day, tears fell from my eyes.

"Come back tomorrow morning," Brock said in my ear. "You can start things then. Go home and get some sleep."

And I did.

\\-/-\\-/-\\-/

My rest was uneasy and fitful that night. Anticipation fought fear across my dreams.

\\-/-\\-/-\\-/

Early the next morning I sat in my room, staring at my few possessions, my prison, my home. If I had any say in the matter, after today I'd never be returning. And it all relied on the pokemon I had caught yesterday.

I pulled my worn, dirty backpack from beneath my bed, and rummaged about in it's main pocket till my hands closed on a familiar ball-shape. I took it out and stared at it. The two red bumps on the top seemed to stare back, challenging me, mocking my weakness and fear. Red like the Machop's eyes. Red like Bernard's blood. I dropped the Great ball back into my bag and stood, packed a couple changes of clothes and my Pokemon encyclopedia, and left the rest. Those things would just weigh me down.

Before I left I stopped at my mother's door and knocked. There was no answer, so I knocked louder. Still nothing. Typical of her, so lost in her own depression she couldn't even say goodbye to her only son. With a heavy sigh, I left her, and my dirty, miserable house, behind. I began walking towards the Gym.

To prepare for the day ahead, I pulled out my encyclopedia and flipped to the page on Machop. There wasn't much information, but it was better than nothing.

"Machop: The Superpower Pokemon

A Machop loves to build it's muscles and practice various fighting styles. Despite it's small size, it is exceptionally strong, and though it has a friendly and docile nature, it should be approached with a measure of caution.

Machop is classified as a Fighting type and has two additional forms on it's evolutionary line; Machoke and Machamp. As with most Pokemon these forms are rarely achieved in the wild due to lack of resources and, in the Machop's case, a way to keep up it's motivation. A Machop is naturally loyal and very vain; if you gain one's trust or admiration you had a friend for life, but beware. It holds grudges just as long.

The Danger Rating for Machop is E: Easily tameable and generally peaceful, but still a threat."

Well. Grudges. Fantastic.

\\-/-\\-/-\\-/

There was a new guard at the gym today, and I flashed him my non-trainer ID as I walked in. Though it was still very early the place was packed. The humans were concentrated in the free weight areas and on the cardio machinery; the training arena, on the other hand, was full of sparring pokemon. Further towards the back I could spot two Graveler playing catch with a geodude, and the tough-looking sandshrew I saw yesterday trading blows with a small but vicious female Nidoran. It unnerved me a bit, seeing all these pokemon mostly unsupervised by their trainers. I walked around the far edge of the gym, past the free weights, and across the back to Brock's office door.

I knocked and called out, "Brock, are you in there?" There was no answer, so I raised my hand to knock again... and recieved a hard pat to the back. I jumped and whirled around, wide eyed, to find the culprit; it was none other than Brock himself, laughing at me and shaking his head.

"Bit high strung today, Calvin? Ha! Well, glad to see you found your way here, at long last. Was beginning to think you weren't coming!"

At long last? It couldn't have been later than 8 in the morning. But I didn't comment on it; I knew how early the truly dedicated Rangers got up, after all. I nodded at him, and said, "I'm ready."

Brock's grin faded to a small smile, and he nodded back. "Glad to hear it. If you'll follow me, your teacher for today is getting warmed up in the back."

He and I walked along the back wall and turned down a small hallway. Man, this gym just keeps going and going, I thought. At the end of the hall there was a heavy wooden door, and from behind it were the sounds of fists hitting flesh, grunting, and occasional enraged monkey screeches. What?

Brock pounded on the door a few times. "Liam! Take a break, your new charge is here!"

The noises stopped immediately, and after a moment the door opened to reveal a large, sweaty, dark haired man wearing a traditional karate outfit. His torso was bare, revealing rippling muscles and several nasty looking scars. His skin was tan and weathered, like he spent all his time conquering mountains or crossing deserts, and his face, while not unhandsome, was rough and mean looking, with a large nose and coal-black eyes. That changed immediately, though, once the man caught sight of me; his eyes lit up and his frown turned into a large grin.

"Brock! I was just finishing up sparring with Primape anyways, great to see ya. And this is Calvin, eh?"

Primape? I had read about those pokemon. Vicious, powerful, and unpredictable fighters, known for going into rages and tearing others to bloody shreds. Surely he couldn't be fighting one of those? But, as I glanced behind the man, I could see the large monkey pokemon, holding it's left arm with one of it's seemingly gloved hands. It looked a little worse for wear. What?!

As Brock and the seemingly super-strong man stared at me, I realized I was being rude. I stuck my hand out to Liam and said, "H-hello sir. It's nice to meet you." Liam reached out, grabbed my hand, and shook it vigorously.

"Nice to meet you too, lad! I look forward to helpin' ya along. A little timid, eh?" he laughed. Suddenly, instead of letting go of my hand, Liam yanked me towards him hard, stopping when our faces were inches apart. His expression became intense and he stared directly into my eyes, his black drilling into my pale gray.

I didn't consider myself weak. While I was tall and thin, one cannot survive working in the rugged fields and mines of Pewter without muscle, and I had a decent wiry bit of that. I tried to pull away from Liam almost immediately, but there was no resisting his strength. Before I could ask him what the hell he was doing, though, he released me and I stumbled back.

"Some fire in you after all!" Liam laughed. "I could see it in your eyes, a spark." He nodded at me several times. "You and I are going to blow on that spark, feed it, until it becomes a raging blaze! A blaze so large that it'll take you as far as your ambition allows in life."

I cleared my throat and gave Brock a sideways glance. He seemed to find our exchange very amusing, so I just decided to roll with it. "Well, sir, if it takes me far away from here, I'm all for it."

"Awh, Pewter ain't so bad!" Liam said. "But you're right, not much of life worth living if you aren't treating it like an adventure. Come on in, say hello to Primape. Let's get started. Also, no need to call me Sir. I'm just Liam, no use being formal, I'm a laid back kind of guy."

At this, Brock laughed. "Laid back? In all my years of knowing you, Liam, you've never once missed a morning workout. You volunteer for our most dangerous missions regularly. Hell, you're more intense about protecting this town than I am!"

"Laid back where it counts, brother." Liam replied, and winked. I gave him a smile and stepped past him into the small training room, where the Primape was nursing it's wounds in the corner.

At the door, Liam muttered something to Brock too low for me to hear, and Brock laughed again. They patted eachother on the shoulder, then Liam closed the door and turned to me. It was just me, him, and his pokemon now.

"Primape! Front and center, we have a guest!" Liam said, and it shuffled over to him, looked at me, and hooted. "Well, lad? Introduce yourself to her! You can call her Primeape or Brunhilda, she changes her mind on which she prefers quite often."

"Hello, Primape." I said softly, giving it a half-hearted wave.

"You call that a GREETING?!" Liam snapped. I reeled back, eyes wide. "The first thing you need to know about training a fighting pokemon; they respect strength! Weakness, fear, insecurity; they can SMELL it on you! Now, introduce yourself like a man, and show yourself as someone worthy of Brunhilda's time!"

I straightened up and loudly said, "Hello, Brunhilda! Good to meet you!" The monkey pokemon hooted back.

Liam grunted. "Better. So Brock tells me you caught a machop." I nodded. "Great pokemon, Machop. Once trained with a brother who swore by his machoke, got him through alot of tight spots. You're lucky you got this particular fighting type; they tend to accept a certain amount of timidness. At the very least they can tolerate it. If you'd caught a mankey it would have torn you apart, Calvin."

I shuddered. There was no doubt in my mind he meant that literally.

"I was also told about the incident you had with the machop a while back, that put you in the center and another good man in the ground. The whole town heard of it. You have my condolences." Liam inclined his head at me, then looked back up, maintaining eye contact. "Training pokemon is not a game. These are dangerous creatures, and not everyone gets away from an encounter unscathed. If you're going to be a trainer, you need to be strong just like them. You need to work with them, build your body, because they have practically no limit to their strength, and you, at least at the moment, do."

At the moment? That piqued my interest, but I didn't comment. Liam pressed on.

"Pokemon, when you form a true bond, are more than tools. They are friends. They are family. Few are truly sentient, but all have more intelligence than a common beast. Never underestimate them and assume them stupid and blind to the world. They know more than any of us think. Remember that." I nodded. "Good. Today, we will truly introduce you to your machop. You will get to know one another. Tomorrow, we will set out south for Viridian forest, where I will escort you as far as Viridian city. You will need to get to Pallet and back on your own; I have business with the Viridian gym. Once you return to the city, I will escort you back here, and then I would advise starting your journey east, through Mt. Moon. That is a true trial for any aspiring trainer, and will help you grow."

I stood there for a moment, comprehending what he'd told me. Then I realized, "Wait... we aren't leaving today?!"

Liam laughed, and suddenly the stern, threatening mentor was gone, replaced by the jovial 'laid back' man I'd first met. "So eager to get going already?" He said with a knowing grin. "You'll be getting your Trainer ID today, you can stay at the PokeCenter tonight like a real trainer. How's that sound?"

That was much better, and I told him so. I had already sworn never to go back to my horrible childhood house, and would have had to sleep on the street or in the fields. Finally seeing the famous PokeCenter hotel rooms sounded like a great start to an adventure.


	3. Optimism

"Now! Time to get to know Machop. Get the ball, Cal."

I walked down to the corner of the small room, to the right of the door, and took off my pack. After a moment of rummaging and cursing, I managed to grab the Great Ball and pulled it out. Liam raised his eyebrow at me, but made no comment. He turned to his Primape.

"Alright girl, pep up. Be ready to subdue if you sense a threat."

The monkey looked briefly puzzled before it spotted the ball in my hand. She let out a soft grunt and raised her arms, puffy hands curled into fists. It seemed like her earlier injuries weren't bothering her anymore.

I took a deep breath, raised the great ball to chest height, and hovered my finger over the release mechanism. I noticed my arm shaking quite badly, and took several more deep breaths. Liam's Primape shuffled closer, and the man himself eyed me expectantly. I pressed down.

From the ball a bright flash of red light struck the ground several feet in front of me; the red light then seemed to condense into a small humanoid form and blink out, leaving me blinded for a moment. I rubbed at my eyes and looked upon the, my, pokemon.

The machop glanced around warily, a puzzled expression on it's face. Upon catching sight of the primape it tensed up, red-irised eyes narrowing and reptilian lips tightening. Then it spotted the shiny Great Ball I still held out, as I was quite frozen in place; previous caution forgotten the machop started forward, arm reaching out to touch the blue and red orb.

A furious hoot from the primape stopped it in it's tracks, however, and also snapped me out of my shock; I was able to lower the ball, much to the machop's apparently disappointment. Liam cleared his throat. I knew what I had to do.

"Machop!" I said, as firmly as I was able. "I've caught you, and I'm your trainer now. My name is Calvin. We'll be traveling together for quite a while, so I hope we can get along."

The gray skinned creature eyed me speculatively, and then looked back to the Great Ball. It's situation finally seemed to sink in; the machop's eyes widened and snapped to mine, staring incredulously and also, oddly enough, vaguely hopefully. Every instinct in my body was screaming to turn away from that crimson gaze, or at least avert my eyes, but Liam's earlier lesson had made quite an impression on me. Hell if I was going to ruin everything by appearing weak at our first meeting. I held eye contact and after a moment it nodded, seeming to approve. I breathed a sigh of relief and smiled. The machop saw this and smiled itself; a mouth full of flat, wide teeth. I had to suppress a shudder.

"Well done!" Liam said, grinning, and once again patted me much too hard on the back, forcing me to take half a step forward. "Alright, Brunhilda. It's good now, you can stand down."

The primape grunted at that, shuffled over to the corner of the room, and took a seat. It's eyes were still focused on the machop, who was glancing between me, Liam, and the Great Ball repeatedly.

"Well? Call it over, make friends!" Liam said, then gave me a wink and went to join Primape in the corner. I gulped. Well, I thought, I'll have to let it get close eventually, may as well get used to it.

"Hey, uh, Machop. Come on over." I said, beckoning to the creature. It immediately dashed towards me, startling me, but somehow I was able to resist stepping back; it grinned up at me and, not really knowing how to proceed, I passed the Great Ball to my left hand and held out my right for a handshake.

The machop gave my hand a curious glace, then reached it's own out and placed it in mine. I gripped it and began to shake up and down; the machop seemed to understand, then, and gripped back, nearly hard enough to crush my bones. I winced. From the corner both Liam and the primape snickered at me; I gave them a dirty look, then turned my gaze back down to the machop, who continued to shake my hand up and down enthusiastically.

From this close the pokemon wasn't quite so scary; smooth pale-gray skin stretched across a face that was almost human; large, bright eyes that while red, weren't threatening, but instead curious and almost innocent; a wide mouth twisted in good natured grin, and a three rough, bony bumps forming a ridge atop it's head in place of hair. Maybe... this won't be so bad after all, I thought, and returned it's grin. Then, upon it's release of my now somewhat aching hand, I held out the Great Ball for it to inspect. An expression of wonder came over the machop's face and it reached out and grasped the ball, no doubt wanting a closer look. Unfortunately one of it's bulky gray fingers tapped the button on the front, and with a shocked expression and a flash of red it was gone. Once again it was just me, Liam, and Primape slash Brunhilda in the smallish training room.

There was a moment of silence.

Liam started to chuckle. So did I. A few moments later we were both on the ground practically crying in laughter, even Primape chimed in a few good-natured hoots. I was unsure how much of my laughing fit was due to relief as opposed to amusement, but it felt amazing, and having made it though my first true trial as a Pokemon trainer, I felt far more optimistic about the future.

Once we had all suitably recovered Liam grasped my shoulder and congratulated me. "I look forward to traveling with you two, lad," he said, "Especially if that kind of thing happens often. We're done for today; go see Brock, he should have your Trainer ID printed off by now. Enjoy the famed Pokecenter hospitality. I'll meet you at 8am sharp tomorrow morning in front of this gym. Don't be late," he finished with a sharp look. I nodded vigorously and thanked him for his time, then went to find Brock.

\\-/-\\-/-\\-/

The trainer ID didn't look like anything special; just a copy of my non-trainer ID, with the 'non' part removed and six boxes on the bottom that Brock claimed were for engravements of pokemon, if I were ever so inclined. Happily after a quick swipe at the Pokemon Center not only were all of my meager funds transferred from the non-trainer account to the separate, 'deluxe' trainer account, but I had a room booked on the third floor all to myself.

The room was fairly plain; an average looking bed in back the corner, a small-ish TV on the wall, a mat near the bed where I assume Pokemon were meant to sleep. But what really caught my interest was the desk, due to the laptop sitting on it. I hadn't ever been able to afford a laptop; even if my family wasn't so poor, only the richest people or government organizations were able to shell out that kind of cash. It was very exciting to see that I had one all to myself. Sleep would be hard to get next to such a wonder, that's for sure.

After closing the door and placing down my backpack, I rushed over to the laptop and opened it. The screen took a moment to power on, but once it did, I was greeted with a list of options; among these were 'Games', 'PokeDexPC', and 'Adult'. I had a pretty good idea what that last one was, and decided to avoid it... for now. And as tempting as gaming was... I glanced over at my backpack, which currently contained the Great Ball holding my machop. It would probably be best to learn more about Machop as a species first.

I clicked on 'PokeDexPC' and a small search bar popped up; poking at the keys I typed in 'Machop' and waited for the page to load. It didn't take long. The amount of information was almost overwhelming; much more than what was given in my book. It described everything from what a machop likes to eat (preferably food high in iron and protein, though in the wild they tend to be more herbivorous), their lifespan (45 or so years for a machop, but this can be extended to almost 120 if they evolve), and even their mating habits. That section also described differences between male and female machop with diagrams; the females tended to be slighter and taller, the males stockier with brighter eyes. Recalling what my machop looked like, it was almost certainly male. That was good to know.

I only skimmed through the part on training and recommended techniques; Liam would help me with that, for sure. I'd gotten all the information I'd needed for now; it was time to try out those games.

And aside from a couple trips down to the cafeteria and reorganizing my few belongings in my backpack, that's all I did for the rest of the day. Though it was difficult to tear myself away, when the sun went down I set my alarm for 6 and forced myself to sleep. Deep down, I knew I'd need it.

I was not wrong.


	4. Mortality

A very cranky, very sore Calvin greeted the world from beneath his pillow the next morning; after an unexpected awakening in the middle of the night I hadn't gotten nearly as much sleep as I had intended. Stupid 'Adult' section.

But happily the public showers in the PokeCenter had water that actually stayed hot; a rare luxury in Pewter. After a long soak I was much more awake and relaxed; my mostly-healed injuries still ached, but after a few good stretches I was ready to go. I scooped up my backpack, double checked that I had all my things (which didn't take long), and took the stairs down to check out. The attendant at the desk was the same nurse who had presided over the recovery ward; as she reswiped my Trainer ID she gave me a deadpan glance and frowned heavily. I said goodbye, but she didn't respond, just stared after me as I left. Creepy.

It didn't take me long to walk to the Gym; I sat down on the sidewalk in front and took out my encyclopedia to brush up on what pokemon trivia I could before I met with my 'teacher'. About a half hour later, as I stared longingly at an artist's rendition of a Nidoking using it's devastating earthquake, there was a tap on my shoulder. I looked up and there, standing over me, was Brock. He gave me a smile and asked, "Excited?"

I nodded and grinned back. "Can't wait. I don't know how I can ever thank you enough for what you've done for me."

Brock shook his head. "Don't thank me. You know why I did it." I nodded and glanced away. Caught up in the excitement of getting a Pokemon and finally leaving Pewter, I hadn't given Bernard too much thought lately. I missed my best friend. That he wasn't here to see me off, or better yet, come with me... it hurt.

And speaking of people not there to see me off... "Hey Brock... could I ask you one last favor?"

"Depends on what it is," he said, and winked. I chuckled.

"Could you, or someone from the gym, stop by occasionally and make sure my mom is okay? She can usually take care of herself alright, but without me... you know how she is."

Brock nodded. "Sure, Cal. That's not a problem."

I sighed in relief, stood up, and stuck my hand out for a handshake. Brock grabbed it but instead of shaking, pulled me in for a manly hug; I returned it, and after much back-patting and roughness we separated and grinned at eachother. There was a muffed laughed from the direction of the gym, and Brock and I looked over to see Liam smirking at us. "I'm not interrupting something, am I?"

Brock and I glanced back at one another and laughed. "Just saying my goodbyes, Liam." I said.

"Well, you're here early; but it's time we got going anyways. We'll stop by the mart real quick for some supplies; and antivenom, can't forget that," he winked at me. "More likely than not we'll need it, damn weedle."

I shuddered. Practically every child in Kanto grew up hearing stories of travelers stung by weedle without having been prepared; they would slowly rot from the inside out. "Alright, Liam. Lead the way."

Brock waved at us as we walked down the street; I waved back. Liam didn't seem to notice. A few moments later the PokeMart was in sight; it's hard to miss the only blue shingled roof in Pewter.

PokeMarts were another building that received League funding, but this was more out of necessity than anything else. Every town across the region needed access to basic health supplies and pokefood; some were too poor to afford to upkeep a supply for themselves, and with much of our lands still wild and teeming with dangerous beasts, a town without a PokeMart just wouldn't survive.

We were quickly in and out; Liam stocked up on antivenom/traveling rations and showed me the best pokefood for a fighting type, as well as how much would be needed for the trip. He advised I get a little extra just in case, and informed me I'd have to let my machop out to eat fairly soon. Apparently, while a PokeBall keeps a pokemon in almost complete stasis, they do still need to eat, just significantly less often than they would were they to stay outside of their ball all the time.

After buying my supplies and the pokefood (which was surprisingy cheap) I decided to purchase several spray-on 'potions', which are designed to heal small wounds on pokemon and humans instantly. Liam seemed to approve of my purchase, but didn't buy any of his own. I noticed his backpack, a large, weathered-looking camo print one, was packed full and looked quite heavy. I also noticed a belt containing three pokeballs; two normal, one a strange ball with a black and gold cap. Liam caught me staring.

"Fancy my belt, do ya?" He grinned. "League regulation. They sell similar here, in the back... a bit beyond your current price range, but maybe..." his expression turned thoughtful. Liam walked back up to the counter and caught the shopclerks attention. After some whispering and Liam pulling a golden badge from his pocket that I recognized as a Pewter Ranger badge, the clerk went through the door behind the counter and came out carrying a belt similar to Liam's, except instead of black it was a pale gray. He handed it over, and with a nod Liam walked back to me.

"If anyone asks," he whispered, glancing back and forth a couple of times, "You're an apprentice ranger who just needed to 'borrow' a belt."

I laughed and took the belt when he handed it over; Liam put his finger to his lips and smiled at me.

"That should be about good. It's a decent journey by foot, three or four days depending. Off we go, lad."

I nodded, and we headed towards the southern road. Towards a life away from this place. I couldn't have been happier.

\\-/-\\-/-\\-/

It wasn't long after we left the city that the forest loomed over us, ancient trees above a semi-overgrown path that seemed perpetually in shadow. Liam and I hadn't spoken much; he seemed deep in thought, and I was mostly just struggling to keep up. Just before entering the woods, though, he stopped, and leaned up against a tree. I stopped with him, relieved, and sat down to catch my breath and stretch.

Liam smiled down at me. "Tired already? We've barely begun."

"Damn leg's acting up." I grimaced. "The Nurse Joy told me I'd be all healed up by now, but it's still pretty sore."

"Ah, they always exaggerate how fast someone'll recover." Liam laughed. "They're likely so used to treating pokemon that they forget our bodies aren't nearly as tough. You'll be fine, just keep stretching whenever you can."

I nodded and thanked him. He turned back to the forest and his expression became contemplative.

"I think it's time you met another of my friends. This forest isn't kind to the unprepared."

I quickly stood up and eyed his belt, wondering if I'd finally get to see what was in that black-and-gold ball. Unfortunately Liam reached for one of the normal pokeballs, the more scratched up and weathered of the two. A click and a flash of red later and I was staring at one of the most terrifying creatures I had ever seen.

A large purple body almost seemed to be hovering in the air, if not for the blur of four jagged wings. Angrily slanted eyes took in it's surroundings and a viciously fanged mouth opened with a terrible screech. It darted towards Liam and I almost cried out, but instead of attacking it landed at his feet and rubbed up against his leg. Liam laughed and gave it a few pats, then turned to me.

"This is my crobat, Slice. One of my oldest friends; the oldest left, anyways." His expression darkened for a moment, then his grin returned. "He's a big fan of bugs; crunchy and delicious." I shuddered, and Liam winked. The crobat fluttered up and into the trees ahead of us; I guess that was our cue, because Liam strode after it; I followed.

The path had looked shady from the outside, but once we headed down it a little ways that shade turned to straight up darkness. Liam was barely visible ahead of me; thankfully he had slowed down a bit, else I'd fear that I might lose him. Strange noises came from the trees all around; rustling, distant roars, and the occasional distressed squeak followed by a loud crunch. Slice was enjoying himself, it seemed.

After a short while there was a muffled thud from ahead of me, and Liam stopped and glanced down to see what his foot had hit. It was even darker now; when I walked up neither of us could make out what it was, just that we were still on the path and it was in our way. Liam fished around in his pocket for a moment and then lit a match. To this day I wish he hadn't.

On the ground in front of us was a child. Or, at least, what was once a child. His blackened face was frozen in a twisted, agonized expression; large chunks were missing from his arms and legs, exposing bone. His midsection was coated in a white stringy substance and it almost seemed to be... moving. Liam reached down and pushed aside some of the strings; his hand came back holding a large writhing larvae-like creature. With a look of disgust he threw it into the trees; from above Slice swooped in and caught the bug midair with a pleased squeak. It was a struggle not to throw up.

Taking a breath, Liam pushed the boy's body to the side of the path with his foot. He then reached into the boy's pants pocket and came out with a small wallet; inside was a non-trainer ID card. Liam pocketed it and turned to me.

"We'll turn this in to the Viridian Police. They'll notify the parents."

I nodded shakily and Liam began walking forward once again, with me not far behind.

We did not speak again until we reached the first checkpoint.

\\-/-\\-/-\\-/

The Viridian forest checkpoints were essentially just shacks in small clearings along the main path. Most travelers chose to stay the night in them, as they were significantly less dangerous than camping out in the open and had fire pits. We, it seemed, were no exception.

Liam headed into the surrounding woods to gather for a small fire, and I was tasked with going inside to fill our water bottles. It was nearly barren in the shack; a small spigot was built into the far wall, and ancient-looking cots were laid out on the floor. A single window provided enough light to navigate, and I had the bottles filled quickly. I then went outside to wait for Liam at the fire pit.

He, surprisingly, was already there, and had stacked enough wood to keep the fire going all night if necessary. I figured there must have been a pile of pre-gathered wood hidden by the trees, or something, and didn't give it too much more thought. I set my pack down and went to help; shortly there was a decent blaze going. Above us the sky began to darken; it was almost night, and I realized that aside from my breakfast I hadn't eaten at all; since seeing that dead kid eating had been the furthest thing from my mind. I fished through my pack and found a granola bar, which I opened up and began to munch on. Across the fire Liam was doing the same. Slice was there as well, though lounging in the heat instead of eating. He was probably the best fed out of all of us, considering what he'd been doing all day.

Liam followed my gaze and then seemed to remember something. "Calvin!" he said. "Release your machop, he should eat some too."

I nodded and reached towards my new belt, where I'd fastened Machop's ball earlier. In a flash he was there, staring at the Great Ball with a newfound wariness. I gave him a smile, which he returned, before glancing around curiously. It didn't take him long to spot the crobat; his eyes widened and he backed up a few steps and raised his fists. Slice looked back at him, seemingly unimpressed.

"He's not a threat, Machop. He's here to keep us safe." I said, attempting to defuse the situation before my pokemon ended up hurt; I had little doubt that Slice was far more dangerous than he seemed, and he seemed pretty dangerous already. Liam looked on in amusement while he enjoyed his meal.

I reached into my back and fished out the pokefood, as well as a small disposable bowl; I scooped some in and offered it to Machop, who looked at it with a confused expression. "It's food." I said. He didn't seem convinced.

I sighed, and reached down to take a piece off the top and put it in my mouth; I'd seen it work with dogs. As soon as the pokefood hit my tongue I realized I'd made a mistake. It was atrocious, somehow dry and oily at the same time, with a strong tang of metal thrown in. But I'd committed; I chewed the awful thing and swallowed, trying not to let my disgust show. Apparently I was not entirely successful, based on the muffled laughter coming from across the fire; but Machop approached me and took the food bowl, at least. He reached in and took a single piece, then slowly placed it in his mouth. His look of suspicion quickly turned into one of surprise and then bliss; he began devouring the food and it was gone almost instantly. Then, he began nibbling on the bowl. I watched in disbelief.

"Well." Liam said, still obviously amused. "Now that dinner and my show is over, let's get you two started on training for a few hours before we sleep. It looks like you still have far too much energy. It's time to TIRE. YOU. OUT!" He shouted.

I gulped. That didn't sound pleasant.


	5. Evaluation

I hit the ground again, hard. All the air was forced out of my lungs, and my already heavily bruised back screamed it's protest. Beside me was Machop, standing on his hands with no problem at all and giving me a concerned look. Across the small field Liam let out a frustrated sigh.

After a half hour lecture on the importance of the trainer training his or her own body alongside their companions, especially if they happened to be of a more physically-oriented variety, and demonstrating some very basic stretches and strike patterns, Liam had us attempt all manner of balance and contortion poses. If I thought I was fit before, I was quickly proven very wrong. My machop seemed to be able to do everything with no apparent effort, which was confusing until I realized that Liam's eyes were focused on me pretty much constantly, only giving Machop brief glances and grunts of approval. It seemed that I was the one being tested, not my pokemon. And that I wasn't doing as well as Liam had hoped.

After I fell a few more times, he said "Alright, stop!", and I lay there for a moment before struggling to my feet. Liam walked over and poked me hard in the chest.

"You, kid, have terrible balance. I'm amazed you stand upright at all! And though your endurance isn't too bad, your strength is severely lacking. Brock told me you worked in the quarries, yeah? That's tough work, where's the muscle mass?" He gave me a pointed look, like he doubted what he'd been told.

I glanced away, trying to keep an angry blush from my face. "We didn't always have enough money for food, if you have to know. But I worked just as hard as anyone!"

"How could you, with naught but skin and bone to lift with? LOOK AT ME!" Liam yelled, and I forced my eyes back towards his. "Looking away shows weakness, do that and they'll walk all over you! Always keep eye contact, assert your own dominance! Because sure as hell, no one else will."

We stared at eachother, and this time I held his gaze. After a moment he grunted, and smiled. "There's that spark, boy. Keep that up. Stay here." I nodded, and Liam walked over to his pack and fished around the front pockets for a few moments. He came back with a small gray container, and handed it to me. "You'll be sprinkling this on your meals from now on, while you travel with me. It's a protein and nutrient mixture I use for my own friends, and myself. It'll help you bulk up a bit." Liam gave me a grin and said, "If you prove yourself worthy of it, I may actually tell you where I get it!" He then laughed and scratched at Slice's ears, the pokemon having abandoned the flames to stand near him and watch me fall down some time earlier.

We stood that way for a few moments, and I finally caught my breath.

"We're gonna get you on the path to success, kid. But you look pretty tired out." Liam pointed at the fire. "Go sit. It's time your partner got _his_ workout." The Crobat gave a snicker, and Machop, who had been playing with a stick near the forest's edge, snapped to attention.

"Machop!" Liam bellowed across the field. "We're going to see what you're made of!" With a quick snap and a flash, Liam had a pokeball in his hand and the primape was standing in front of him, staring at Machop with a kind of dark amusement.

"Go easy, Brunhilda. We're just evaluating today." Liam's whisper carried, and Brunhilda nodded. I watched, concerned. This match couldn't be anywhere near close.

Machop walked from the forest to the middle of the small clearing, and raised his fists. Brunhilda hooted once, and tensed. All was silent and still for a moment, then, so fast I could barely see it, the primape launched herself at Machop and struck him down with a devastating crash. He struggled to his feet, and was immediately hit in the back, sending him skidding and leaving a long gash in the ground. Dust was already beginning to obscure my vision, but I could make out Machop using his powerful legs to launch himself in the air, and a blur that could only be Brunhilda following him up. There were a series of pounding noises and a loud THWACK, then my machop flew down, once again, into the dirt, leaving a small crater. This time, he didn't get up. The blur flew towards him.

"Stop!" said Liam, and Brunhilda froze instantly, fists still raised. He raised his pokeball and recalled her, then called over to me. "Calvin! Grab a potion from your pack and tend to your companion." I nodded and in a matter of seconds had the potion and was speed-walking over.

Machop looked rough. His side had several long, bloody scrapes, and there was a sharp stone embedded in his leg. I reached out to remove it and readied the potion. As soon as I touched it, however, Machop's eyes shot open, and they were furious. His arm grabbed mine with enough strength to nearly crack the bone, and I froze, caught in that crimson gaze. In those eyes I saw my death, thrown by the neck out of a trench. I saw a beast, one that killed and began to eat my dear friend. If I wasn't held tight, I think I may have ran just then, ran and ran, and things would have been very different. But instead I stared, and he stared, and with Liam's earlier lesson still firmly burned into my mind, I held his gaze. Machop's look of fury gave way to one of confusion, then pain. He looked up at me with such hurt innocence that all of my previous visions gave way to concern, and suddenly, I wasn't afraid any more. This was not the same monster. This was my starter, my first friend. And I needed to take care of him.

"Let go of my arm," I said, softly but firmly. "What I have in my hand will make you feel better, but only if you let me use it. Okay?" Machop nodded, and let me go. A few quick sprays later and the wounds on his side stitched together before my eyes. "Alright buddy, I'm gonna have to take that rock out. It's gonna hurt for a second, but you're tough, right? You've got this." He grimaced, then nodded. I reached down and got a good grip, then with a quick yank the stone was out, along with a spurt of blood. I quickly sprayed the rest of the potion on it, and though it was reluctant to close at first, it eventually became nothing but a small pink like on Machop's rough gray skin.

I stood, and offered Machop my hand, with a smile. He smiled back, and took it. Hand in hand we walked back to the fire, where Liam and Slice were waiting for us. Liam had a wide grin, and gave me a nod of approval. I nodded back.

The rest of the night was quiet. After staring at the dancing flames for a while, I returned Machop and headed to the cabin for some much needed bed rest. Liam followed, and Slice kept watch.

\\-/-\\-/-\\-/

We were up early the next morning, and on our way. No complaints from me on that, either; though I was definitely sore, I wanted to be out of the forest as quickly as possible. There was no telling what could go wrong in a place so densely populated by creatures, as that dead kid had found out.

Liam seemed a bit more talkative this morning.

"Your Machop did very well last night," he said. "For a beginner, of course."

I looked at him, confused. "It seemed to me that he was beaten pretty soundly."

"Well yeah, that was always going to happen." Liam laughed. "Brunhilda's pretty damn tough for seasoned pokemon, she's near unstoppable for anything else. But Machop, he stood up to quite a few hits before giving up. Shows he's tough, has guts. Plus, that bit where he launched himself up! He can think for himself, do some strategizing. That's very good. Usually trainers have to really practice to get good techniques down, but your boy seems to be a natural at it! We'll have him learning some basic moves later tonight."

I nodded. That all made sense, but… "Didn't you tell Brunhilda to go easy, though?"

Liam grinned. "She never does. Useless for me to tell her. That was more for your benefit than hers, you looked pretty nervous."

I shook my head. This guy was too much. At least Machop wasn't hurt. But, since he was talking anyways…

"So… what's in that weird pokeball on your belt?" I asked.

"Ah, so you noticed that, eh? It's called an Ultraball, boy, and worth more than you've made in your life, I can tell you that." Liam patted the ball. "Can't reveal all my secrets though, eh? I'd get boring. No, let's hope you never have to meet this friend. He only comes out when things are seriously wrong."

I decided not to press the issue. If that Ultraball held something so ferocious that even Liam wouldn't let it loose for no reason, it was probably best I didn't know.

"So… what did you do before joining the rangers in Pewter?" I said. Liam chuckled.

"Full of questions this morning, eh? Well, that's no secret. I travelled. A lot. Forests, mountains, oceans, caves, cities… I met many people, most of them worthless. Content to live their lives hiding in their big settlements, rarely even seeing a pokemon that isn't a police growlithe or a stray rattata. I learned interesting things about myself, those who govern us, and the ideas of certain organizations on certain things. Seen in the right light, much of what seems dark can really be necessary and even good, circumstances permitting. I would strongly advise you, kid, never to take anything or anyone at face value; there's always something else there, and you can find it if you look hard enough." He gave me a pat on the shoulder. "No more for now. We've got to speed up if we're going to make it to the next checkpoint; I want more time for training tonight!"

I groaned, and he laughed, but we stopped speaking and sped up a bit. Slice flitted about in the trees above, keeping any unwanted guests away.

By mid day, I was absolutely exhausted. Liam seemed to notice, but instead of taking a break, he had me pull out some of my food and sprinkle the powder from his gray container on it. After eating, and a few swigs from my water jug, I felt more energized and ready-to-go than I had at any other point in the past couple days. I wondered what exactly was in that powder… but that was an issue for another day.

We carried on, and in just a few more hours walked up on the cabin for the checkpoint. But this time, to my surprise, there was already someone there.

\\-/-\\-/-\\-/

The man was sitting by the fire pit, placing some logs in a teepee-type structure and filling it with leaves. He was very thin and dirty; wearing a pale blue, button-up shirt, faded yellow shorts, glasses, and a large straw hat. Beside him sat several caterpie, and on a nearby log a shiny bright green mass I took to be a metapod was laid out, occasionally twitching one way or the other. Upon seeing all of these bugs, Liam quickly recalled Slice; this caught the man's attention immediately, and he flinched and let out a short scream. Liam and I held up our hands.

"It's alright!" Liam said, approaching slowly. "We're fellow travelers, just looking to spend the night. Do you come from Viridian?"

"N...no, one of the surrounding t-towns," the man replied, shaking slightly. "I'm just out here to… t-to… to catch some bugs. It's how I make money, you see."

Liam nodded. "I've met a few bug catchers in my time. A noble profession, if a bit rough. How's the haul today?"

The man glanced at his backpack, then his eyes quickly shot back to us. "Fine, it's been f-fine! Nothing special! Nothing worth taking!"

Liam and I glanced at each other, and then back at the man. "We're not going to try to take your things," I said, giving him a smile. "We're peaceful enough, I swear. We'll go use a different cabin; come by later if you'd like, we can swap stories."

"M-maybe." The man managed to stammer out, and we walked past him to another clearing.

"Are robberies common in these woods?" I asked Liam, glancing behind us to where the man was frantically attempting to light a match. "He seemed very, very nervous."

"It's a rough world, Cal," Liam replied. "I wouldn't be surprised if there are some recent bandits out here. There are only so many rangers, after all. But don't worry, Viridian gym is one of the best in Kanto; they'll send someone to stamp them out soon." I nodded, and went inside to refill our water while Liam scoured for wood again.

Just like last time, when I came back out, he had a large pile and was lighting the fire already. I was going to have to remember to ask how he did that so fast, but for now, I was far too hungry. I passed him his bottle and we prepared dinner; due to the beating Machop had gotten last night, Liam advised I feed him again today, and so in a red flash he was with us as well. We made eye contact and grinned at each other; I passed him a bowl of his food and this time he chowed down without my having to eat another piece, for which I was very grateful. On my food I sprinkled a bit more of Liam's special powder; and after eating I once again felt strong and full of energy.

After an hour or so to let our food digest, Liam quickly stood up and said, "Last night was the warm up, boys! Tonight your real training begins, get ready!"

I stood up as well and prepared myself; this time, I was determined not to be a disappointment.

Hey, it was worth a shot, right?


	6. Possibilities

Our training session began similar to the last; we received another lecture on the importance of training alongside one's partners, then on to the stretching. This time, though, the poses were far more rigorous. Several positions had me sure my limbs were about to snap off; even Machop seemed to be having a little trouble, something Liam noticed very quickly.

After demonstrating each new stretch he would walk around us while we attempted to imitate, and push or pull our limbs to where he felt they should be. Even Machop's thick gray arms were moved with ease, even when he seemed to be actively resisting. That struck me as odd, but I didn't comment.

After the stretching we were treated to another lecture, this time on combat.

"Fighting is a form of art many devote their lives to, but few perfect. There are near infinite ways to strike a foe, or block, or even dodge and flee when necessary. In very few cases is it honorable to accept a pointless defeat when you can choose otherwise. But that's another lecture!" Liam paced as he talked, voice passionate and clear. "Any pokemon, can be a warrior! But only some hold the title of 'Fighting Type'. This is because those breeds are instinctually and physically wired to be masters of the strike, the block, and the dodge. Exceptionally tough, strong, and brave to the point of foolishness. These creatures are the true embodiment of the warrior spirit! And that is why I get along with 'em." He gave us a wink. "Now! Lad, can you tell me the difference between a 'fighting' type and a 'normal' type?"

"Uh…" I replied. I honestly had no idea. "There doesn't seem to be much of one, sir."

"WRONG! And what did I say about calling me sir?" Liam snapped, and I uttered a hasty apology. Keeping eye contact, of course. He seemed pleased with that. "The difference between a fighting type and a normal type is the difference between a throat punch and a body slam. It's all in the precision, maximizing damage in specific areas for far greater effect. Normal types are wasteful, their energy spread wide even when harnessing elemental power. Fighting types, on the other hand, have the focus and DISCIPLINE to do real damage. Assuming they're trained correctly, that is." Liam walked over and stood directly in front of me. "Cal. Punch me."

"What?!" I said, caught off guard.

"Now! Hard!" he shouted, and I wound back and hit him in the chest with a resounding THWOCK. I was pretty proud of my strike, until of course Liam started to laugh.

"You call that a punch?" He walked over to Machop and said, "Hit me!"

In one fluid motion Machop slipped into a fighting pose and smashed his fist into the upper part of Liam's stomach, his arm following through and sinking a half inch or so in. Liam staggered back and let out a 'hoof' noise, then gave Machop a big smile.

"Not half bad! Right in the solar plexus, eh? See Calvin, that's what I was talking about. You struck my chest, where I have nothing but muscle and bone. Your pokemon, however, knew to strike where I'm vulnerable; the collection of nerves just below my sternum. That's what makes a fighting type, and I'll be bruised in the morning!" Liam patted his stomach. "Battle isn't all about kicks and punches. It's about strategy. You need to learn about your opponents, know where their weaknesses lay, and exploit them. The best fighters, and the best trainers, all do this on principle. You can't just train your body. You need to train your mind."

After fishing around in his bag for some paper, Liam drew up a quick sketch of a human body, and circled certain points. He handed the sketch to me and said he expected memorization of it over the next few days; in his own words, "Pokemon tend to leave you alone, if you're well prepared. Humans, we're unpredictable. Best to know how to defend yourself." Liam then walked over to Machop and demonstrated a few punches, kicks, and chops with his hand; he pointed across the field to a few rocks, and Machop got the message. In a few moments the field was full of nothing but loud cracks as the rocks were steadily turned to gravel.

"He's got 'karate chop' and 'low kick' down well enough, as well as the basic strikes. Tomorrow I'll make sure he knows to focus his energy; I'll have to teach you both meditation, it helps a great deal. But for now, get down and do pushups until I say stop!

And it carried on like that for quite a while. In a few hours the field looked like a warzone, bits of rock and splintered tree everywhere, and I was absolutely exhausted. Liam tossed me a granola bar and went to tend to the fire. I devoured it before walking over to join him. The sun was about to set; the shadows danced in the firelight. I thanked what gods there may have been for the fact that it was soon time to rest, else Liam would have surely kept me going.

As we watched the flames devour the branches, we noticed the man from earlier approaching us. He gave us a nervous wave, and we called out a greeting and invited him to join us, which he did. In the firelight I noticed he'd washed some of the grime off of his face and arms; he was actually quite young, couldn't have been more than 14. His clothes, of course, were still filthy.

"I'm Liam and this is Cal. What's your name, lad?"

"I'm… Steve." the man, well, boy, replied.

"How come you're out here alone, Steve? Surely it's better to travel in groups, the forest is a dangerous place." I said. He shook his head.

"No, e-everyone else is needed back in town. There was a, a beedrill attack recently, several men died. We need m-money for repairs, so I'm out here."

"Beedrill attack? On a town? Interesting, Beedrill usually stay away from settlements unless their hives are threatened…" Liam mused, and Steve looked exceptionally guilty for a moment, then shook his head and glanced back at us.

"So where are you t-traveling to?" he asked us.

"Viridian first. Then Junior here is going to Pallet to see Oak about a pokedex." Liam grinned and ruffled my hair, much to my annoyance. "I've got some business as well. Nothing worth speaking about."

"Oh, a trainer? That's p-pretty cool, I've always wanted to be one of those. They don't let us keep the b-bugs. What's your, your starter?" Steve asked me.

"It's a machop. I'm sure you heard him destroying the field earlier." I smiled.

"Oh, t-that's what that was! It m-made me hide in the cabin. Machop are scary. Those r-red eyes." he shuddered, and I gave a nod of agreement. Steve turned to Liam and said, "What p-pokemon do you have?"

"That's a pretty personal question, lad," Liam said. "I'd rather not say. I can let you meet one, though; we'll need him to keep watch tonight, anyhow. You may want to recall any bugs you have in the area."

Steve reached into his pocket and took out a strange light blue pokeball with what looked like netting on top of it. In a flash the metapod that I'd noticed twitching away behind him disappeared. Liam raised his own ball, and with a terrible screech Slice took to the sky, his dark gaze focused on Steve, who flinched back. Liam called out and Slice landed by his leg for some head-scratching. The crobat let out what seemed to be distorted purring; I chuckled at that. Steve was still petrified where he sat.

"It's fine," I said. "Liam seems to have trained him well; I'm sure he won't hurt you." Liam nodded, and Steve calmed down slightly. I stood up.

"Well, it was a pleasure to meet you, Steve. But I'm dead tired. I'm going to go into our cabin and pass out; if you're still around in the morning, feel free to say goodbye!"

"Thanks, C-Calvin. I will." Steve and Liam stood as well, and after a few handshakes we all retreated to get some well earned rest.

\\-/-\\-/-\\-/

We were up early the next morning; the sun had barely begun to rise. I packed up camp and made sure our water was refilled while Liam went to check on Slice. Soon enough we were back on the path; no sign of Steve. Must have slept in.

We walked on in silence for hours, only stopping for a quick bite to eat around mid-day. More of that powder and the soreness in my limbs was washed away for a time; there had to be some kind of painkiller in it. About mid-afternoon we reached the next checkpoint. This time, however, there wasn't anyone there to greet us.

We claimed a cabin and started a fire, just like the other nights; after our dinner Liam told me to release Machop, which I did. Upon his appearance Machop looked at me expectantly. It took me a moment, but then I laughed. "Not tonight, buddy. I'll get you some food tomorrow night; we've got to make what we have last, after all." He looked rather put-out about that, and I laughed. Liam smiled.

"We'll be out of the forest by tomorrow anyway. I know a fine PokeCafe in Viridian; perhaps I'll show it to you. All you can eat." Liam winked, and Machop perked right up. Liam stood.

"Today we're going to be meditating. Machop, I know you likely do this already, but it's always good to go over the basics. Lad, do as I tell you." I nodded and we walked to the nearby clearing.

"Sit." We did. "Close your eyes and listen to the world around you. Try to empty your mind. Don't stop any thoughts; just let them flow through you, coming and going as they will. Breathe deeply through your nose. Focus on your breathing, relax your muscles, until you've reached a very calm, comfortable state. Try not to move. Deep breaths."

I did as he asked; my mind was filling up with questions and comments, observations on the smell of the forest or the hardness of the ground, and I struggled to let the thoughts pass by. I also had an incredible urge to fidget which I was fighting with all I had, and slowly losing to. Liam must have noticed.

"It takes a bit of practice, Cal. Don't give up, though. You should try to do this every night; helps focus your inner self, which is very beneficial. From now on it is part of our training. When you master it, you'll be able to slip into your meditative state at any time you wish, even while exercising or in combat. It helps. You both can stand, now."

Machop and I stood, and I rubbed my leg a bit; it had begun to cramp. We did our stretches, which were just as brutal as last night, while Liam corrected our forms and lectured us on 'flexibility' and how essential it was to mobility in a fight. Then Liam had me do sprints and various bodyweight exercises while he chatted quietly to Machop, who seemed to be listening attentively.

After a few minutes I noticed Machop closing his eyes and tensing his muscles repeatedly while Liam poked at him and whispered pointers. Soon enough every time Machop tensed his body was consumed by a brief flare of yellowish-white energy.

"Excellent!" Liam exclaimed, and grinned widely. "Now you just need to work at combining that with strikes and kicks. It works best if you focus the power in the limb you're striking with; but that takes a great deal of practice, I don't expect it tonight. For now, just work on maintaining the energy while delivering blows, alright?" Machop nodded and grinned back, then ran out into the center of the field and began focusing again.

I jogged over to Liam and spent a moment catching my breath. Then I asked, "Why does it seem like he understands every word you say when we talk to him? You said yourself that few pokemon are truly sentient, how is he getting our speech?"

Liam gave my shoulder a pat. "A good question, lad. Truth is, I'm not sure how they do it. Pokemon seem to be able to get the gist of whatever someone's trying to say to them. In any language, as well. I assume they read the intentions from a person's aura, which would be why it's very difficult to lie to a pokemon if you have ill intent."

"What is 'aura'?"

"A question for another night, one far in the future. That's not knowledge just anyone can know. Focus on your training, for now, get back on that field!"

I groaned, but did as he said. I didn't want to know what he'd do to me if I didn't.

Soon enough the sun was setting, and I crashed hard in the cabin. There were no dreams.

\\-/-\\-/-\\-/

After walking most of the next day, the trees finally began to thin. Soon we were in fields, and then small farmhouses would be scattered here and the distance I began to make out a large mass of gray that must be Viridian.

As we approached I noticed that while I could see the tops of buildings, what most of the gray was was a huge concrete wall, with bars of a metallic greenish substance every few feet along it. There was a large gate just up ahead that would occasionally open to let out a vehicle or two; beside it were two sturdy looking buildings. There were several guards standing about, holding odd yellow batons and accompanied by a few rough looking raticate. Liam walked up to one and flashed his Ranger badge; after a couple muttered questions we were both led through one of the buildings and into the city itself.

Viridian City was a beautiful place. Even though the wall was rather ugly, the buildings themselves were nice; made with light-colored wood and tiled roofs. Far ahead there were a few factories and warehouses, but even they matched the color-scheme. The streets were clean, and as Liam lead me to where he said the PokeCenter was, I didn't see a single stray pokemon. Just humans, smiling, walking to and fro or sitting around in the various gardens and small parks. After the roughness of Pewter this place was a bit of a shock.

"Why is it that this city is so luxurious, when just a few days walk away Pewter is a wreck?" I asked. Liam laughed.

"Viridian guards the gateway into the League itself, the Victory Road. It has fertile land, houses many of the families of League staff, and is home to the most powerful gym in Kanto. That means it makes, and gets, tons of money. And with money you can do practically anything, lad. It's a good lesson to learn."

"Anything…" I whispered to myself. In my mind images of a new, renovated Pewter danced. All the kids I knew, able to live their lives wearing a smile instead of a grimace. Good food and drink, and a large home for me and my mother, with in-house medical attention to help her finally recover. It would be perfect.

"Here we are!" said Liam, and indeed right in front of us was the signature red roof of the PokeCenter. "You go in and get a room; I need to stop by the Viridian police station real quick, I'll be around soon." We exchanged a dark look. "Request some food for Machop in the cafeteria; they should have some. We'll have to hit that PokeCafe tomorrow, it's a bit too late now. Practice your meditation."

I nodded and went in. A quick card-swipe later and I had my room reserved, and after grabbing a couple to-go boxes of food for me and Machop, I headed up.

The room was a bit more luxurious than Pewter's, but not much. The walls were a bit more decorated, but it was still beds-computer-chair-desk-phone-window. I eyed the computer with anticipation, but then quickly shoved those thoughts away. It wasn't time for that now.

I released Machop. He glanced around the room and then grinned at me. I smiled back and handed him his food. "No all-you-can-eat tonight I'm afraid, buddy. We got here too late. Tomorrow for sure, though, and that for now." He looked downcast for a moment, but quickly recovered and tore open his box with relish. The food was gone in an instant.

My food was down pretty fast as well; I'd been walking all day, after all.

"Liam told us to practice meditation until he got back. Sound good?"

Machop nodded, and we sat on the bed. I tried my best to get into that calm state that Liam had talked about, but still couldn't quite do it. I was sure I got closer than I had yesterday, though.

After a while of that, the phone rang. It was the receptionist. She asked if I was expecting a visitor, and I said yes. A few moments later there was a knock on the door; it was Liam, of course.

After a couple shoulder-pats and an inquiry about our meditation, Liam told us we should get rested up. "Big day tomorrow, lad. I'll show you around the town, then we'll head out for Pallet the day after. Shouldn't take us long. I've got a room elsewhere, but I'll meet up with you in the lobby bright and early."

I told him I'd be there, and soon enough I was passed out; so was Machop, who I decided to let stay out to use the bed in the corner. It was about time he got to rest somewhere that wasn't inside a tiny ball, I figured.

Tonight, however, there was a dream.

\\-/-\\-/-\\-/

I was in a enormous room. It was dark; the only light came from the torches placed along the various columns that ran down the sides. The ground was red, and oddly wet; it glittered in the firelight like solid ruby. On the far side of the room there was a white marble throne; in it sat a figure. Even from a distance I could tell he was large, and see his cascading mass of hair; it, too, was red. He wore a crown that shone with gold and precious gems.

Everything about this man spoke of power and wealth; as I approached I saw his armor, a glossy black with silver trim. His eyes seemed to glow with emerald flame. He stared at me, and I stared back. He spoke.

"Remove him."

His voice was deep and terrible. A voice of command. I glanced around; I was the only one in the room aside from him. I turned to ask who he was talking to, but just before I could, I noticed something large moving among the columns. It was still so dark, but as I focused I could make out the gleam of teeth and claws, and with a terrible roar it lunged at me. It's eyes were the same terrible green, claws wreathed in purple fire. I screamed.

And awoke gasping for breath, covered in sweat. Machop was standing over me, giving me a concerned look.

"It was nothing, bud. Go back to sleep." I said, and rolled over to look at the clock. 4am. I figured I'd try for a few more hours, myself. But I didn't like my chances.


	7. Progress

As I'd expected, I wasn't able to get back to sleep. I took a desperately needed shower, then ended up poking around on the computer a bit (just the games, anything else was off the table with a sleeping machop in the room!) until it was sufficiently bright out. I returned Machop and headed down to the lobby.

Liam was already there, of course. He clapped me on the shoulder then handed me a newly bought pair of workout shorts. After a quick run back to my room to change, and drop off my backpack as I'd completely forgotten that we'd be staying another night, I met Liam again in front of the building. He grinned when he saw me, then took a deep breath.

"Taste that morning air! Delicious. Don't think I didn't realize that we didn't do a workout last night." Liam winked, and I groaned. It was too early for this. "We're going on a run, lad! Try to keep up."

What followed was a very thorough tour of the city. We ran up and down various streets and a few spacious alleyways, and Liam didn't stop talking once. He showed me the central park, the marketplace, a few residential districts, several public pools, and finally the Viridian Gym. At this he stopped and let me catch my breath. It was a good thing, too, because I was about to pass out. He, of course, didn't seem even slightly winded.

The gym was amazing. It was huge, with ornate wooden doors and walls made of an attractive dark-stained wood. Gigantic diamond-shaped windows lined the upper levels, and there was a thin tower at the very top which you could likely see the whole city from. It was a hell of a lot more impressive than Pewters. Sorry Brock.

"This place is awesome!" I said, and Liam laughed.

"It'd better be! You know how much they paid to have this place renovated? Besides, it needs to be able to house a small army, just in case."

"Can we go inside?"

"Hmm…" Liam thought for a moment. "I don't see why not! When we leave, though, you're not done running."

I grimaced, but my mouth turned back up into a smile as we approached the doors. Two rather rough looking men were standing guard by it; one stepped forward and held up a hand to stop us.

"What business do you have here?" he asked, giving me a skeptical look. His voice was soft but very direct.

Liam reached into his pocket, and pulled out something I'd never seen before; it wasn't his ranger badge. Unfortunately he flashed it so quickly all I got was that it was red and black. The guard nodded, and stepped aside. We walked in, down a long hallway, and I resolved to ask Liam about it later. Then immediately forgot about it when I saw the room we were about to enter.

It was enormous, triple the size of the front room in the Pewter gym. In various fields dangerous-looking beasts practiced and sparred; I saw several gargantuan arbok, tons of sandslash, a few rugged rhyhorns, leering hypno, and even, in the very back, what looked to be a Nidoqueen. Her aquamarine plates were covered in spikes, and she had to be at least 7 feet tall. But despite her intimidating appearance, her face seemed serene. The nidoqueen looked perfectly comfortable and happy with everything going on around her. I envied her that; the noise in here was nearly deafening. I was amazed that I hadn't heard it outside.

"Okay!" I shouted to Liam. "I've seen enough!"

He shot me a thumbs up and mouthed 'OK', and we headed for the door once again. But just before we reached the end of the hall, we were stopped by one of the guards from the door. He motioned us into a small side room that had several comfy chairs in it.

"What's this about?" I asked, but the guard didn't answer, just turned and went right back out..

I shrugged at Liam, and he shrugged back, so we decided to wait. After a few moments the door opened, and a man stepped in. He was about my height, and wearing a very nice pinstriped suit; his dark hair was slicked back, and his face, while not at all ugly, seemed frozen in a very severe expression. But the most noticeable thing about him were his eyes; though they were pitch black, they seemed to burn with near-maddening intensity. As soon as they were on me I was pinned to my seat. Liam, of course, stood up immediately.

"Giovanni, old friend! Great to see ya." He walked over and held out his hand, a wide grin on his face. Giovanni just stared.

"You were not supposed to meet with me yet," he said, his voice cold. "We had an engagement for this evening. Did you forget?"

Liam's grin faltered. "No, sir. I'm not here for that, I was showing my student Calvin around town and he asked if we could enter your gym. I didn't mean to interrupt anything."

"Student?" Giovanni looked back at me, eyes blazing in contrast with his tone. He seemed to practically look through me, no detail unobserved, inside or out. I shuddered, but kept eye contact. Finally, he turned his piercing gaze back toward Liam.

"It seems there was a misunderstanding." Giovanni's voice thawed a bit. "It is good to see you, too, old friend. I'm afraid you caught me at a bad time just now. These League taxmen are insufferable, and I've got three in my office as we speak."

"I got ya, no worries at all," Liam replied. "We were actually just heading out; I'm sure there will be plenty to speak about later." He raised his hand again, and this time Giovanni took it.

"I look forward to it," he said. His glanced back to me. Thankfully the fire was dimmed a bit, but it was still unnerving. "I hope you find my city satisfactory, Calvin. Liam knows it well, I trust he'll show you the sights."

"It's a beautiful place, sir. I've only just arrived and I already prefer it to Pewter."

Giovanni shot me a half-smile at that, and left the room. Liam let out a breath.

"Not at all what I expected to happen; sorry about that, lad," he said. "Let's get going."

And go we did. At a run, much to my dismay.

\\-/-\\-/-\\-/

An hour or so of constant movement later a very tired Calvin and a still-seemingly unaffected Liam had stopped in front of a small building labelled 'Bigg's Good Eats'. Liam shot me a grin and said, "This here is the buffet I was telling Machop about. Don't worry, they have food for us too. Go ahead, let him out."

I reached down to my belt, only to realize that I'd taken it off to change into the new shorts. I began to panic, thinking Liam was going to make me run all the way back to the PokeCenter to get it, when I noticed him cracking up beside me. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a great ball, then tossed it to me.

"I figured you'd forget, so I took it off the belt before you went up. Try to keep the clasps a bit tighter, they're there for a reason, Cal."

I stared at the ball, astonished. I'd never even felt him take it. But, I was never one to scoff at good fortune, so I promptly released Machop, who looked around warily at the buildings and few people out walking.

"This is where all the food is, bud." I said, and I pointed at the restaurant. Machop's face lit up, and he burst into a wide grin. He reached out, grabbed my arm, and began to pull me towards the door.

Behind us, there was another flash of light and several hoots. Upon hearing them, Machop froze. He let go of my arm and turned slowly, rage filled eyes and scowl tipping me off that he was not at all happy to see Brunhilda. I recalled what I read about machops a while back... that they tend to hold grudges. Uh oh.

Quickly as I could I reached out and grabbed Machop's shoulder. He looked back at me, scowl fading slightly. I shook my head. "No, Machop. She's a friend, and this isn't the place to fight. You'll get another shot, don't worry. For now, though, we eat!"

Machop looked conflicted for a moment, then nodded and relaxed. He and I walked in, followed soon after by a smirking Liam and a very excited looking Brunhilda.

The place was surprisingly spacious. Directly in front of us was a row of tables flanked by two rows of booths, and in the very back there was row after row of small kiosks that held trays of steaming food. To the sides were large containers of dried pokemon food with what looked like small shovels sticking out. And to our left there was a counter, where a chubby blonde man was giving us a polite smile.

"Welcome, my first customers of the day! Will it just be you four?" he asked, his voice surprisingly high pitched.

"Yep, just us today, Ed," replied Liam. "Put it all on my tab. The boy here couldn't afford to buy a machop-buffet ticket." They both laughed, and I was confused until I saw the list of pokemon names and prices on the wall… they were right, I couldn't afford anywhere near that. I turned to Machop.

"Dig in, buddy, this is probably the last time you'll have the chance."

He gave me a determined look and a nod, then rushed towards the food, Brunhilda following close behind.

What followed was the wild consumption of the most food I have ever seen eaten in a sitting, by both pokemon and by Liam. I ate plenty too, of course, but they had me way outranked. I'm still not sure where they fit it all. After an hour and a half, and several tray refills, we left the restaurant very, very full.

Liam led us to a nearby park, which had some comfortable looking benches by a large fountain. We sat and relaxed, listening to the sound of running water and the distant commotion of the market district.

"So… how do you know Giovanni?" I asked. Liam stared at the fountain for a few seconds before answering.

"I used to do contract work for him. Back when I was a bit younger, he'd have me running across Kanto, and even Johto. Now, though, I just check in from time to time. He's a great man."

"Younger? You don't look that old."

Liam laughed loudly, and shot me a grin. "Thanks, lad. But I'm older than I look." He glanced at the sun. "I need to get going; there are a few things I have to sort out before my meeting. How about you do some shopping, eh? I'll meet you tomorrow morning, in the center lobby. Be ready to go."

I gave him a nod. He stood and began to walk off. Brunhilda hopped off her bench with a grunt and followed him. Just before Liam was out of earshot, though, I heard him yell, "Don't forget your meditation, and studies! I'll know if you skipped them, lad!"

I chuckled. No doubt he would. Returning Machop, who had passed out as soon as he sat down, I headed towards the market.

\\-/-\\-/-\\-/

Shopping was dull. I grabbed another potion and a bit more traveling food, and even a standard pokeball, then just wandered. After a few hours of browsing special herbs, designer items, clothing, and souvenirs, as well as repeatedly having to tell off an old man who was trying to sell me a magikarp for an outlandish price, I found myself laying on my PokeCenter bed and staring at the diagram of a human Liam had drawn up for me. Circled were the temples, the jaw, the throat, each armpit, the upper stomach ('solar plexus', he'd said.), the groin, both knees and elbows, and the outer part of either ankle. Scribbled near each were small bits of advice; 'kick from behind' and 'arm bar', and even 'only in EMERGENCIES' near the circled groin. I wholeheartedly agreed on that one, and did my best to commit the image to memory. Then I fired up the computer to see what pokemon were most common between Viridian and Pallet; I figured I may catch one on my way back.

The results weren't promising. Pidgey, rattata, spearow, the occasional pikachu, and several bug types… none of them particularly appealed to me. In fact, I had my hands full already just with Machop; catching other pokemon would have to wait a while. I suddenly regretted buying that pokeball earlier. Just more weight to walk with, now. I decided to put it on my belt anyways, though, in case I had to throw it as a distraction or something. At least it looked better than having just Machop's great ball. Speaking of… in a flash of light, Machop was laying on the bed beside me, still fast asleep. I poked him, and he opened his eyes to glance around, but didn't move at all. He closed his eyes again.

I laughed. "Wake up, bud! We've got to do some meditation practice, Liam's orders." Machop grunted, but didn't show any sign of moving. "Alright, how about this; I'll do the meditation, you practice focusing your energy for a little while. Sound good?"

It did, apparently, because Machop hopped up and stood in the center of the room, occasionally flashing pale yellow. I, still on the bed, attempted to ignore it while I tried to meditate. It was very distracting; I should have thought that one through.

After a bit I decided I'd tried enough for one day, and stood up. Surprisingly, I did feel a great deal calmer than I did before. Strange, I didn't even notice being stressed. Oh well.

I returned Machop and went down to the cafeteria for a late dinner. For the first time in a while I put more of Liam's special powder in my meal; with the burst of energy I got afterwards I kept up bodyweight exercises as long as I could, then collapsed on the bed and passed out.

\\-/-\\-/-\\-/

Early the next morning I met Liam in the lobby, stuff all packed up and ready to go. I noticed him glance at the new pokeball on my belt, but he didn't comment. Instead, he looked me in the eye and said, "You'll be in Pallet by this afternoon. Let's get going, lad. Southern gate, I'll take you about half way but you'll need to travel the rest, and back." His voice sounded rough, and uncharacteristically withdrawn.

"Is there something wrong?" I asked.

"No," he replied. "Nothing you need to concern yourself with, at least. Just more business. Come on."

We were at the south gate very quickly; I guess the Pokecenter must have been close. This time Liam didn't have to flash anything to the guards. They just let us through, and once again we were on the road.

Liam didn't bother releasing Slice this time; the fields and small groups of trees didn't seem particularly dangerous. As we walked I saw many lone pidgey flying ahead, and in the distance a squabbling pack of what had to be spearow, judging by their unique cries. Occasionally a rattata would wander across our path, though when they noticed us they would flee into the bushes. There were no bugs visible, though; they must have been hiding from all the birds.

It was a nice day for a walk. The sky was cloudy, but not overcast; just enough to give shade, but not enough to rain. It wasn't hot, but the slight breeze was refreshing anyway, and smelled fantastic. I marveled that all of this was so close to the wasteland that is Pewter.

By mid-day a small town was visible in the distance; one large building surrounded by several smaller ones and some farms. There was not a wall. I'd heard rumors that there was no need for one, mainly because of Professor Oak's exceptionally powerful team of pokemon who were rumored to patrol the area; some people even claimed they were strong enough to take on an Elite Four member, in their day. I didn't know if I believed that. The Elite Four's pokemon were monstrously strong. They had to be, to help our champion keep his iron grip over the region.

"This is as far as I take you. I'll be in Viridian for two more days; ask after me at the gym when you return. If you're late, you'll have to travel back through the forest alone, and I don't think you want that." Liam chuckled, but it seemed forced.

"I will; thanks for this, all of it," I said. "It really means alot to me."

"Don't mention it, Calvin. Go get your pokedex." He held out his hand, and I took it. After a quick handshake, we set off on our separate ways, for now.

Even though we didn't talk much, it was strangely lonely not having Liam walking beside me. But as he said, by early afternoon I was standing in Pallet, in front of the large building marked 'LAB'. I took a deep breath, and walked in.

I was in a small room with a desk to one side and a door to the other. There was no one at the desk, but there were several chairs.I spent a few moments looking for a bell or something, to let them know I was here; nothing. So I sat.

And sat.

Just as I was debating whether to leave and come back later, the front door burst open and two people entered. One was a short woman with brown hair and an apron, and she was actively yelling and throwing her hands around. The other was an average sized man with white hair, a lined face and a grandfatherly air. This was Professor Oak, I'd have known him even if I hadn't seen his picture in all of my science and technology textbooks. He had a very commanding presence; not scary, like Giovanni's, but just as strong. The woman, however, seemed not to notice or care.

"Samuel, how many times! Fieldwork is all well and good, but you can't just disappear without telling any of us, it's rude and what if we needed you?! I would think with your brains you'd know better but I g-" she stopped as she noticed me, sitting there and giving them both a wide eyed look. Then she whirled back on Oak. "See?! You had someone here already! I bet you've kept him waiting all day!"

"I haven't been here too long, ma'am, don't worry." I said, hoping to defuse the situation. She waved it off.

"Nonsense, you look like you've near-about fell asleep in the chair! Samuel, you take care of this young man. I'll finish with you later!" And with a huff, she walked back out the door, leaving me with a very embarrassed looking Samuel Oak.

"Sorry about that, son. Delia gets a little worked up from time to time." He tried to laugh it off. I gave him a smile, and some of the awkwardness left his posture. I stood and offered my hand.

"My name's Calvin Stone, sir. I'm a new trainer, and I'm here to pick up a PokeDex."

He took my hand in his and shook it, giving me a shrewd look. "Stone, eh? Any relation to Steven Stone of Hoenn?"

"Distantly, yes." I said, and he grinned.

"Any relative of Steven's is a friend of mine! He's a fantastic man, it really has been too long. Pity all that gang madness keeps him busy, he'd be more liable to visit during our conferences. Now, you said PokeDex?" I nodded. "You're in luck! I got a new shipment in just yesterday. Come on in, we'll get you set up."

He strode through the door in the back of the room, and I followed. After a few twists and turns we were in a large room full of shelves, desks, and computers. Papers littered every available surface, and piles of metallic parts were haphazardly scattered on the floor. Laying on one of these was a large, slumbering pikachu; with each breath a small current of electricity ran down it's tail and lit some of the bulbs in the pile, giving off small flashes.

Professor Oak rummaged around under a desk in the back for a few moments, then came up with a small, bright red device. He flipped it open and pressed a couple buttons. Seeming satisfied, he walked over to me and held out his hand. "Trainer ID please, uh, Calvin?"

I passed it to him, and he slid it into a slot on the side of what I assumed was the PokeDex. It gave a few beeps and a whirring noise, then lit up and spit out my card, which Oak handed back to me.

"Alright, my boy. This is a new, state of the art PokeDex, specially tailored to you. All the data from your ID is on it, as well as access to your money and basic information. Do not lose it." He stared sternly at me, and I nodded. "It also has a call and message feature; your unique PokeNumber is listed under 'contacts', if you exchange numbers with others you'll be able to contact them in all but the most hostile terrain. Now, please release your starter pokemon."

I reached down to my belt and in a flash Machop was there, bright red eyes wide at all the shiny things in the messy laboratory. Professor Oak held up the PokeDex and pressed a button; a bright red light not unlike that of a pokeball shot out and enveloped Machop for a split second. The device beeped, and Oak showed me it's screen. Several bits of information came up on Machop, including his breed, height, weight, sex, general strengths and weaknesses, as well as commonly known moves for it's 'level', which read as 14.

"What's 'level'?" I asked.

"A very good question!" Oak exclaimed. "I'm amazed they didn't teach you in school. Level is an estimation of strength and experience based on size, age, and energy output. It differs from creature to creature how strong they are at what level of development; some grow fast, others slow. But remember, it's just an estimation! The pokemon you're looking at could be far stronger or weaker than the device reads, depending on a number of factors; I'm still working on that, I'm afraid." Oak looked downcast for a moment, then seemed to recover. "But, you saw how the scan worked? You should do that for every pokemon you encounter that you're curious about; it'll tell you much more than you'd know otherwise, and might save your life! As an added bonus, much of the information gets transferred back to me in the lab, contributing to my research of pokemon as a whole. Just by using the PokeDex, you're advancing modern science! Isn't that fantastic?"

I nodded, and he handed the device to me. I looked it over and pocketed it, thanking him profusely. He laughed.

"Don't mention it, my boy. It's the least I could do for our next generation! Now, is there anything else I can help you with?"

"Yes, is there any place nearby I could spend the night before I head back to Viridian?"

"Well, there's a hostel down the road to the east… Ted's Bed and Breakfast. You go over and tell him I sent you, and to give a room for free. It's the least I could do for a relative of Stevens!"

I thanked him again, and Machop and I went on our way, rather reluctantly on his part; he wanted to stay with the shiny things, it seemed. I played with the PokeDex as we went. It was truly a fascinating device.

Even this small, sleepy town was a hell of an upgrade from Pewter. Not quite as luxurious as Viridian, that's for sure, but nice and peaceful. A place I could understand settling down in. The only excitement I saw for the rest of the evening was a loud scuffle between two young boys, one with black hair and the other with spiky brown. They seemed to be fighting over an especially fluffy arcanine stuffed animal; it was very cute.

When I got to Ted's and told him what Oak had said, he let me in and even brought me a meal, at no cost. As this was the first time my family name had gotten me anything in life, I wasn't complaining.

Ted's bed was quite a step up from the PokeCenters. I drifted off as I tried to meditate. Woops.


	8. Torrential

Early the next morning I thanked Ted for the room (plus had a bit of the sausage he was frying up) and went on my way. The sky was gray; it seemed the rain clouds had finally moved in, and I very much hoped that the sky wouldn't open up on me during my travels. I fished a disposable rain poncho from my pack, though. Just in case.

I also released Machop. I felt it'd be better to walk with someone; plus, I needed to spend as much time with him as I could. We still weren't as used to each other as I'd like to be. When I explained to him he'd be traveling with me outside of the ball, he seemed rather happy, and as we walked along he'd occasionally wander off the path to check something out or poke at the trees and bushes.

The first few hours of our walk went by quick; just the sound of distant wildlife and the thuds of our footsteps along the worn dirt path. I was zoning out a bit, I admit; but everything came back into focus fast when Machop reached out and grabbed my arm, hard.

I stopped fast, and looked ahead of us. There, in the middle of the path, was a very angry looking mankey. He was hooting and grunting at us, and bashing his fists on the ground. Machop replied with a screeching roar; I shuddered, then pulled out my PokeDex and pressed the button to scan the pissed primate.

"Mankey: Male. The Pig-Monkey Pokemon. Height: 1'7, Weight: 58lbs

Very aggressive and highly territorial, all travelers are advised to give mankey a wide berth. This mankey is level 7. He likely knows to scratch, low kick, and fury swipe. Approach with caution."

Hm. Only level 7. "Okay Machop, you want a chance to test some of those skills Liam had you working on?" He nodded excitedly at me, and gave a grin. "Very well. Focus your energy, bud!"

Machop stepped forward and a whitish-yellow light flashed around him, brighter on each of his fists. "Great job, you're improving fast!" I yelled. He didn't respond, just stared down the mankey, who seemed to be going into a tantrum at the challenge.

"Hit it!"

Machop dashed forward and swung his fist at the mankey; somehow, though, the beast dodged, and its leg shot out into Machop's, making him stagger to the side. The mankey then leapt at him, claws extended and flailing wildly; that must have been Fury Strikes.

"Dodge then karate chop it down!" I yelled out, and Machop performed brilliantly; quickly sidestepping, he bashed the mankey into the dirt, then let it have a vicious low kick. The mankey flew into the nearby field, and did not move.

I waited a moment, then walked up to Machop. "Great job, buddy!" I said, and patted his shoulder just as Liam constantly did to mine. He grinned up at me, and I gave him a thumbs up. "You hurt at all?" He shook his head. We then went on our way, spirits significantly raised due to winning our first real wild pokemon battle. Then, of course, it started to rain

I pulled out the disposable poncho, and promptly realized I only had one, and there were two of us walking. I decided to deal with the wet and offer it to Machop; it wasn't cold, after all. But he refused, and so I put it on; at the very least it would keep my pack from getting too wet.

We stepped up the pace and were at the Viridian gates a bit quicker than we'd gotten to Pallet yesterday; the guard at the gate stopped us, and had me recall Machop, but after a few quick questions and a scan of my PokeDex I was allowed in. Now all I had to do was find that damn gym… shouldn't be hard, it's a huge building, right?

\\-/-\\-/-\\-/

Three hours later, and soaked to the bone despite the poncho, I finally found it. All it took was stepping into several establishments and asking directions, then making wrong turns until I found another establishment to ask directions from. I swear, the city didn't seem this complicated in the sunlight.

As I approached the gym doorway, the guards on duty stepped aside and let me pass without question; I guess the soft-spoken one from the other day recognized me. I asked directions to a bathroom and was led to a nearby doorway, and inside I changed out of my sopping wet clothes and into something that, while still damp, didn't make it look like I'd just jumped into a pool. Upon entering the enormous room at the end of the hall, though, I noticed things were very different from the last time I was there. It was completely empty, for one; no humans, no pokemon, even many of the bleachers surrounding the fighting pits had been taken down. The sand in the pits was perfectly smooth; it almost looked like a solid yellowish floor, but I knew if I stepped on it I'd sink right in. I decided to take the opportunity to explore a bit.

I walked the perimeter; there were several doors and hallways in the far back, but the other walls were clear of openings aside from the one I'd entered. There were a few mountain screens that I assumed were for broadcasting fights, as well as several scoreboards. In the far back corner there was a door larger than the others; this door was wide open, and I walked over to it to glance inside. And came face to face with the nidoqueen I'd seen last time.

She was even more intimidating up close, all armor, spikes, and claws. Her eyes were confused as she stared at me; I stared as well, and started to back away. The nidoqueen to a single step forward, and a voice called out, "Stop."

The voice was cold but commanding, deep yet smooth. I remembered it well. Around the beast stepped the unmistakable form of Giovanni, wearing a plain black suit instead of his pinstriped one. He gave me a half smile. "Calvin. Liam wasn't expecting you until tomorrow! Did you really walk here through all of this rain?"

I glanced down at my damp clothes. "I'm afraid so, sir. I'd already gotten well on my way when it started."

Giovanni let out a polite laugh. "So I can see. Come with me, we'll find you something better to wear while your clothes dry off. I've got a few hours free; a rare occasion, rest assured. I'd like to chat."

I thanked him, and he led me down a nearby hall towards a small laundry room. Giovanni fished around in a nearby closet for a moment; he then handed me a plain white shirt and gray sweatpants with the Viridian Gym logo on them: an emerald leaf, tilted to the side. He then pointed to a nearby dryer and walked out; I shoveled my clothing in, and emptied my backpack to add it for good measure. With all my things piled up in the corner, and the new clothes on, I started the dryer and stepped out to see Giovanni approaching with a key. He locked the door behind us. "Better to be safe than sorry, isn't that right?" I agreed, and we walked back into the main room.

Giovanni pointed to a row of benches near the back; and we sat down across from one another. He whistled, and from the nearby shadows a large cat-like creature materialized; it stalked over, a pale golden mass of rippling muscle, and lay down in front of him, pressed up against his leg. Something about it seemed even more intimidating than the nidoqueen; this cat looked like he'd kill you without a thought, if given the chance. Giovanni seemed completely unphased, however, and reached down to scratch the monster behind the ears.

"Do you like Persian?" he asked, and gave me another of his half-smiles. "He was my first friend, all those years ago… we've been through so much together. I hear your starter is a machop?" I nodded and tried to stay calm. But how could one not react to being stared down like prey from a few feet away?

"Yes sir. He and I get along very well. We won our first wild battle on our way back." I smiled at the memory, and Giovanni seemed amused.

"Victory is a glorious feeling, there we can agree. Liam speaks a great deal about you." His piercing gaze met mine, and it was all I could do not to flinch. "He says you have potential, and I trust his judgement. Perhaps I will soon have work for you in my organization, Calvin… Stone?" He said my last name with an odd tone, and I wasn't sure what to make of it. I decided to ignore it.

"A job? Well, I could certainly use the money!" I laughed, and Giovanni smirked. "But for now I have to travel and train; I'm of no use to anyone as such a novice."

"Wise of you to say. No false bravado, I find that… refreshing," he said. "So many of the new trainers who pass through, they're full of themselves. They think they can conquer the world with ease, but the world is not kind. Especially not to those who think themselves it's better. Once they set out, I rarely hear from those individuals again. Do you understand what I am telling you?" I nodded. "Good. Where do you head after Liam escorts you to Pewter?"

"I plan to travel through Mt. Moon and find my way to Cerulean, perhaps challenge some of the gym trainers there."

"Through Mt. Moon, in the next few weeks?" Giovanni looked pensive for a moment, then stood. He reached into his suit jacket and pulled out a bright red cloth. A small 'GV' were emblazoned on the corner. He held it out to me. "When you walk the caves, tie this around your arm. I have some… associates there, who may help you find the correct path. It will let them know who you are."

I thanked him, and went to put it in my own pocket; only to find that the sweatpants had no pockets. I settled for just holding it. Giovanni noticed my attempt, though, and gave me that half-smile again.

"You clothes should be close to dry by now; our machines work fast. Come, let us go back."

We walked back down the hallway and he unlocked the door for me. Persian, still laying by the bench, watched us leave. Creepy cat.

Just before I entered, Giovanni stopped me and said, "I shall go find Liam and let him know you've arrived. Wait here after you've changed back; please place the pants atop the washer, you can keep the shirt. Your mentor shall be along shortly." His fiery black eyes drilled into mine. "It was pleasant to speak with you."

"You as well, sir. Thank you very much." He waved off my statement, eerily similar to how that woman in Pallet did, and left.

Surprisingly quickly, there was a knock at the door. I opened it to Liam's grinning visage. "Cal! You survived without me, I almost didn't think you'd make it!" He clapped me on the shoulder; to my credit, I didn't stumble this time. All that exercise must be working!

I gave him a grin back and said, "It was fine, I just walked with Machop. He's as talkative as you, so it was like you never left!" Liam laughed at that, and after I grabbed my newly-dried backpack we walked out of the laundry room and through the main area. There was no sign of Persian; I assumed he was hiding somewhere, because I still felt like I was being watched.

In a few moments we were standing outside; the rain had all but stopped, now just a light drizzle. A far cry from the earlier torrential downpour. Just my luck.

"We'll be staying here for another day, I'm afraid," Liam said. "Business still calls, and she is a cruel mistress." He shot me another of his typical grins, which I returned.

"No worries, Liam. There's sure to be plenty in this city I've yet to see."

"Nah, I've shown you about all there is." Liam laughed, and I cringed, remembering just how thorough his 'tour' had been. My legs were still a bit sore. "Why don't you head outside the city limits and train some? Track down something to fight; a young machop has more than enough energy to spend."

"Are you not coming?"  
"Nah, I've only got a short break. Figured I'd walk you to the center, at least."

"Ah…" I said. After defeating that mankey earlier I was eager to resume Liam's training; it was tough, for sure, but I knew there was still so much he could teach me. Liam noticed my disappointment.  
"And I thought you said you hadn't missed me!" He laughed, and after a moment I joined him. We chuckled and poked fun at one another all the way to the PokeCenter.

\\-/-\\-/-\\-/

After checking in and a quick meal, sprinkled with special powder, of course, Liam said his goodbyes and after stowing my items in my room I headed out to the north gate. After checking and double checking that both Machop's and the empty pokeball were on my belt, of course. Better safe than sorry.  
The gatehouse was full of activity today. Men in dark uniforms with pokeballs around their waists hurried to and fro, some even holding guns. I was surprised to see that; guns weren't widely used in Kanto, due to so many pokemon being resistant to sudden sharp impacts. They'd work well enough on bugs, I supposed; though most of the times I'd heard of their use it was specifically for other humans.

I asked one of the guards at the gate what all the fuss was about. He refused to say, but did tell me that the men were gym trainers and were headed out, plus that I should stay out of their way. He didn't need to tell me twice. I decided to use the west gate instead.

After a while more of walking, the west gate came into view. This gate was significantly less guarded; past it was the road to Ever Grande City, home of the esteemed Pokemon League, and so attacks were very rare from this direction, I supposed. I strolled out with no trouble, just a nod at the very bored looking guard on duty, and headed down the road a ways.

The land there was very open; a far cry from the forest I could see dominating the north. On either side of me were wide plains with small clumps of trees or bushes. Perhaps it was how wet it was, or the lack of places to hide, but I couldn't see a single pokemon; not even a pidgey or spearow in the sky.

I walked a ways out into the grass and released Machop. He glanced about and gave me his flat-toothed grin; I grinned back and shot him a thumbs-up.

"I thought we'd get some training in, buddy. After your stellar performance with the mankey," Machop beamed, "I was hoping there'd be more out here for you to fight. But as you can see… a whole lot of nothing."

After a few more moments of glancing around, Machop looked rather disappointed. A brief flare of yellow energy engulfed his limbs, and he kicked at a clump of grass.

Just then, from the direction of the road, I heard a yell. "Hey kid! You a trainer?"

I spun around and there, trudging through the grass towards us, was a short, rough looking young woman wearing combat fatigues. Her hair and eyes were dark brown, and she was giving me a big smile.

"Yeah, I'm a trainer. What's up?" I asked.

Her smile widened. "I challenge you to a battle!"


	9. Cornered

"Looks like you're getting some exercise after all, bud." I said, grinning at Machop. He gave one last kick at the grass and hurried over to stand next to me, looking very excited.

The woman's eyes drifted to my belt. "Two on two?" My grin turned sheepish.  
"I actually only have one."  
She shrugged, then pulled out a pokeball. "No matter. Rapidius, go!"  
There was a flash, and standing before her was a rather bulky looking blue-skinned tortoise, standing on two legs. Its brown eyes focused on Machop, and it's posture became noticeably more haughty; reptilian lips curled into a sneer. I pulled out my pokedex and scanned it.  
"Wartortle: Female. The Turtle Pokemon. Height: 3'6, Weight: 58lbs  
The evolved form of Squirtle. Wartortle are powerful Water pokemon who can store and shoot liquid at high velocity. They're rare in the wild, and are usually bred in captivity. This wartortle is level 17. She likely knows to Water Gun, Bubble, Bite, Withdraw, and Rapid Spin." Some general strengths and weaknesses were also listed. The last line was half hidden, and I had to drag the screen with my finger to read it. There I noticed a small blue symbol shaped like a water droplet, and a 'read more' option. Making a mental note to check that out later, I put the pokedex away and focused back on the woman and her wartortle. Machop had already taken a few steps toward it, falling into one of the stances Liam had shown him.

"You may want to take a few steps back!" shouted the woman, who had moved to about 30 feet away. "Rapidius here likes to go a little wild with her shots, and if they clip you they can really hurt!" I nodded and backed away a bit myself. Hopefully Machop will be able to hear me from back here, I thought.

"I'm Calvin, by the way!"  
"Melissa!" she replied. "Ready?"

I nodded. Machop braced himself.

"Go!" A split second after the word had left her lips, a watery projectile was flying towards Machop. He tried to dodge, but it clipped his shoulder and sent him staggering. Before he could recover he was struck twice more and fell. I winced.

Rapidius charged towards Machop, mouth open wide to display several rows of teeth that gave off a strange dark aura. Worried, I cried out for Machop to get up; thankfully the wartortle was rather slow, and by the time she reached him he was ready for her. With a vicious sweep of his leg Rapidius found herself crashing to the ground, and he followed up with a karate chop aimed directly at her head.

"Withdraw!" Melissa snapped, and Rapidius's head was in her shell just before Machop struck. He slammed his hand into her, and there was an audible CRACK. I winced again. Hopefully that was the shell.

"Focus your energy, Machop!" I yelled. He complied, yellow energy gathering around his raised arm as he prepared to strike again. Unfortunately, that moment was all Rapidius needed; popping her head out, she blew out a cloud of fast-moving bubbles, right at Machop. They exploded on impact and he was thrown back, then lay still.

Everything was silent for a few moments, as I struggled to slow my heart rate. That had been… intense. Completely different from being dominated by Brunhilda, or kicking the crap out of a tiny mankey. But still… we lost.

My next thought was one of concern. My buddy was laying out on that field, hurt, and I was just standing there! I ran over to him, ignoring Rapidius as she reveled in her victory. I reached behind me to get a potion, only to realize I'd left my items in the pokecenter room. Shit! Grabbing the great ball back off of my belt, I recalled Machop and turned to hurry back to the center.

"Hey, wait!" I glanced back, and Melissa was jogging over to me. "You're just going to run off without even saying goodbye?"

"My pokemon's hurt; I've got to get him healed up." I said, and moved away. I was stopped by a hand on my shoulder.

"He'll be alright; I saw the whole thing. Rapidius didn't hurt him too bad. Those bubbles are concussive, he passed out from sensory shock, not actual damage." I relaxed a bit at that, and turned to face her. "You've got a tough Machop there. Not many first-form creatures can stand up to multiple water guns from a wartortle, even if it is a recently evolved one. You should be proud. How long have you been a trainer?"

I shrugged. "A few weeks."

She raised her eyebrows. "You guys must be training hard, then. I've had Rappy here," she reached down and patted her wartortle on the head, who was looking up at her with adoration, "for about half a year now. She's my starter."

"Well, it's very nice meeting you both." I said, and held out my hand. Melissa took it and shook; her hands were surprisingly rough. "I really should be going, though; I'd like to get Machop looked at regardless."

"I understand. You never know." She laughed, and pulled out a green device that looked similar to a pokedex. "I can tell you're new to this. Being a trainer's a bit rough; it's always good to have friends who spend time out on the road. You wanna trade numbers?"

I gladly agreed, and as we parted ways and I hurried back into the city, it was with a smile on my face.

\\-/-\\-/-\\-/

After a quick check-in with a pokecenter nurse, Machop was declared fit and healthy, if a little bruised. She gave him a watered-down potion and told me he was to rest a few hours before trying to take any more projectiles to the chest. We headed back up to our room, and I decided to check out that symbol I'd seen on the pokedex earlier while Machop relaxed. It lead to a list of pokemon 'type' advantages and disadvantages, which I'd known about, but also a comprehensive description of how and why each matchup worked, as well as breeds which were exceptions. The amount of information was huge; I'd have to spend the next few days studying it, as well as all the weaknesses wartortles had; if I ever ended up meeting back up with Melissa again, I was determined to beat her.

A few hours later I was distracted from my reading by a knock at the door. It was Liam, and he came bearing some good news; instead of spending another day here, he'd be ready to leave the next morning I was eager to be on my way, and so was pretty happy about that. I also told him about my match with Melissa.

"You took on a wartortle this early, and weren't immediately knocked out?" Liam raised his eyebrows at Machop, who nodded. "Great job, bud! Nothing to be ashamed of, evolved pokemon are tough, especially certain armored breeds. Remind me to teach you a trick to deal with that." Machop gave Liam a huge grin at that, which he returned.

"Will we be able to train tonight?" I asked. Liam shook his head.

"We can go grab some food, but I'm not done work."

"What kind of work are you doing?" I asked.

"Nothing you should be concerned about, lad." He gave me a strained smile. "Let's head down to the cafeteria; you need to keep eating, you're still skin and bones!" Liam poked at my side and laughed. He was right. Despite all that I'd been eating recently, I was still rather thin. "You still have that powder I gave you?"

"Yeah."

"Good, bring it along!" He ordered, and walked out the door. After a few moments rummaging around, Machop and I followed him.

We joked around while we ate, and the food was decent; better than the Pewter pokecenter, at least. After we'd finished, and were just sitting back digesting, I asked about the gun-wielding gym trainers I'd seen at the north gate.

Liam's expression turned grim. "Do you remember the bandits that kid in the forest was talking about?" I nodded. "You know it's a gym's job to look after their region. It turns out the local police just weren't enough to deal with that group, and so Giovanni dispatched some of his own to… solve, the problem. Don't give it too much thought, lad. We won't run into them tomorrow."

We fell silent. I looked down at my empty plate and thought back to our encounter with Steve. Hopefully he'd made it home alright.

Suddenly, the quiet was broken by a loud belch. Liam and I both turned towards Machop, who was wearing an embarrassed smile. Just like that, the mood was broken, and we were laughing and joking again. Finally, Liam stood.

"Well Cal, I'd best be heading back. I'll be seeing you bright and early tomorrow. Get a decent night's rest; AFTER your exercises and meditation." He gave me a measured glance, and I nodded. "Good. Rest well."

The remainder of the afternoon was uneventful. I read then meditated, Machop trained with focusing his energy, and I made sure to exercise hard; I had a feeling Liam would know if I didn't.

It had been an exhausting day. I passed out as soon as the sun set.

\\-/-\\-/-\\-/

Liam and I met up just after sunrise, out in front of the Pokecenter. It had rained a bit more during the night, but it was a beautiful, clear morning, and the air was decided to jog out to the city gates; thankfully this time Liam kept up an easy pace. Almost before I knew it we were out and the forest loomed in front of us once again. I was eager to be on my way, of course, but I wasn't especially thrilled to have to go through that awful place. Thoughts of the corpse we'd found still made me shudder.

A quick stop and a red flash later Slice was hovering above us; no doubt he enjoyed the forest, what with all the delicious food available. I let Machop out as well. His presence had become rather comforting to me, which was surprising considering what my feelings had been just a few days ago. We walked forward in silence.

I kept up a good pace throughout the day; whatever was in that powder, combined with all that food, it was certainly working. We reached the checkpoint by mid-afternoon and set up our stuff in a shack. It looked like most of the wood Liam gathered on our last trip through was still there; we used it to start a fire, and heated up some food.

While we ate, Liam quizzed me on the diagram of human weak points. I was able to name them all, and he seemed satisfied. After giving us some time to digest, he stood, and launched into a lecture.

"Tonight we'll be talking about honor. More specifically, at which point bravery meets idiocy. This is something I've had trouble with throughout my life, and, Cal, I think you're more like me than you yet realize." Liam winked, and I smiled. "Let's say you're out walking alone, with no weapons. A damn fool thing to do, but an unfortunately common mistake. You come across a group of dirty men holding a young girl at gunpoint, threatening her. What do you do?"

"Um… get away, I suppose."

"Okay, why?"

"Because there's too many of them, they're armed, and I'd just end getting us both hurt for no reason."

Liam nodded. "You're right. But in the heat of the moment, if you're not thinking, you might just jump in and try to save the girl. Heroics like that only work when you can back them up, lad. Trust me." A grim expression flickered across his face, tinged with regret, so quickly I wasn't even sure I'd seen it. Liam continued. "So you've gotten away. What now? Do you just forget about it?"

"Absolutely not. I'd go get help!"

"Good. Ignoring such a thing would be cowardice, the worst kind of dishonor! It's important to always know where help is, though. Study maps, find towns and cities, have the number for the local rangers. Be prepared. You don't want to know what can happen if you aren't. And if all else fails, as it sometimes can, know this: if you've trained hard, kept well supplied, and made good friends," Liam patted his belt, "you can find a way to make it through. Bravery without the ability to actually do anything is just dangerous foolishness. The truly honorable man, Calvin, becomes all he can be, not just for himself, but for the capability to do what is right when the opportunity presents itself." I nodded. "And if you're ever backed into a corner, with no way to retreat… fight with every last thing you've got, understand?"

I said I did, and Liam seemed satisfied. We followed up his speech with some very tiring exercises, and then he began to teach Machop how to use a move he dubbed 'Brick Break', which Liam claimed would work wonders against hard-shelled creatures like that wartortle. To do this he'd had Machop drag a large rock into a clearing, and ordered him to karate chop it over and over while attempting to form his energy into a blunt hammer-like shape around his hand. There hadn't been much progress at first, but now every other strike chips were flying off the rock and it was beginning to crack. Machop seemed very proud of himself.

We finished up the night with some meditation. It was already part of my routine, and I found myself looking forward to the calm and collected feeling I always got after finishing it. A few minutes into our session, though, there was a loud SNAP in the nearby woods that had all of us instantly standing and staring in it's direction. Liam whistled, and a purple blur flew from the treetops and towards the noise. After a moment Slice returned, empty-clawed, and we decided it was nothing and to go to sleep. Liam seemed a bit on-edge, though.

\\-/-\\-/-\\-/

The next morning we packed our things and hurried on our way. I decided to keep Machop in his ball today; he'd really tired himself out with 'Brick Break', though I was excited to see him use it on an actual pokemon. Melissa won't know what hit her!

It was eerily quiet as we walked. Usually the forest was full of rustling and animal calls; today there was only the occasional snap, which every time Slice flew over to check, never seeming to find anything. At about mid-day we stopped in a small clearing to rest and eat. That's when the creature struck.

There was a loud crash in the woods ahead, and Slice, frustrated at his lack of easy food, ripped through the air towards it. As I looked up from my meal and began to turn, I noticed movement in the woods behind us. Out of the trees emerged a red and sickly yellow blur, flying towards Liam's back. Before I could shout a warning it was upon him. What happened next was almost too fast for my eyes to follow.

Liam spun and struck, driving his arm through the creature's midsection and out it's back in a spray of lime colored gore. His other hand came around almost as fast and chopped at it's head, decapitating it. The head flew towards me and landed at my feet, mandibles still clicking, large insectoid eyes steadily glazing over. Liam threw the spider-like body to the ground with an audible crunch, and I recognized it. An ariados. The damn thing was huge. My gaze shifted to Liam. I noticed he was bleeding.

"Fuck!" Liam shouted. He glanced down at the blood streaming from the small holes in his chest and fell to the ground. I began to rush over.

There was a deafening screech, equal parts fury and fear, as Slice returned to his master and found him injured. Just before he could land, though, a lilac-tinted beam of energy flew from the woods and immobilized him. I stopped moving and turned.

From the forest a strange mime-like creature emerged on spindly legs, face seemingly frozen in a deranged grin. The beam holding Slice in mid-air emerged from it's finger. Behind it three men in pale green uniforms, flanked by two large brown stag-beetle like bugs, emerged. They smirked at us, but their expressions quickly turned to shock and then anger as they saw what remained of the ariados. The one in the middle took a step forward, and spoke.

"Ranger filth!" He sneered, then spat. "Your sort drove us from our place in the Viridian countryside, cut down our brothers, now you seek to head us off here? When we kill you, I'll take your belts as trophies and slice up your pokemon for sandwich meat!"

Horrified, I reached for my belt. Running wasn't an option with that psychic type here, it'd catch me, and I couldn't leave Liam. I'd have to stand and fight. Before I could, though, I heard a whispered, "Cal." I looked down. Liam had unclipped his ultra ball, and was pointing it at the men. "Get down." I did. There was a flash of light, then a terrible, earth shaking roar.

Before me was a true monster. It was at least 7 feet tall, clad in jagged green plates, and an aura of darkness was radiating off of it like smoke. The men and bugs cringed back, but it was too late. A huge black orb of pulsating energy flew from the beast's mouth, expanding as it went, and engulfed the mime, which disintegrated before my eyes. It carried on, hitting the men and tearing them, as well as the surrounded forest, to shreds. Jagged spikes of rock ripped through the dirt all throughout the clearing, and the sunlight began to dim. I gasped. The beast turned.

Intense black eyes, not unlike Liam's, met mine for a split second, then disappeared in another flash of light.

Everything was silent.

Another worried screech filled the air as Slice battered Liam with his wings. Liam reached up and scratched at Slice's head. "Don't worry, boy. I'll be fine." His voice was weak, and the bleeding on his chest hadn't stopped. "Cal, could you grab my bag for me? I'm going to need to patch myself up, and some antidote. Damn venom works fast." I rushed over with his bag, and he thanked me, before pulling out an antidote canister and spraying it directly into his wounds. There was a sizzling sound, and he winced, but then seemed to relax. A few quick wraps of adhesive bandages later and he held out his arm. I grabbed it and Liam stood, using my shoulder to steady himself. "Alright, let's keep going."

I blinked. "Are you serious? You just got stabbed in the chest, poisoned, and your _tyranitar_ just slaughtered several men! You need to rest! And how did you move so fast? How did you kill the ariados with your bare hands?! Where-"

"CALVIN!" he shouted. I flinched back. "I'll be fine. We can rest at the checkpoint. Tomorrow I'll tell you everything, okay?"

We maintained eye contact for a moment. I nodded. "Good."

Thankfully we had covered most of the ground that we needed to already that day, and so it wasn't long until we were at the shacks, where Liam ate a quick cold meal and went to lay down. I released Machop and told him what had happened, as well as did some exercise and tried to meditate. When that didn't work, I tried to get some rest as well, leaving Machop out to keep watch with Slice, just in case. With my mind whirling so much from our near-death experience it took quite a while to doze off, but eventually I managed.


	10. Revelation

Morning came. I was wide awake, and ready to interrogate Liam; unfortunately, he insisted that what he had to tell me would take a very long time and that we should get our travel out of the way first. Reluctantly, I agreed, and we set out along the path at the same brisk pace we'd had yesterday; Liam's wounds didn't seem to be bothering him at all.

After a long bout of travel and a quick stop for food (during which Liam had released Brunhilda to guard the perimeter, just in case), we came up on our final rest stop in the early afternoon. Liam and I put our things away, gathered a bit of kindling, lit it, then took places across from one another on the log seats by the fire. I stared at him, waiting. After a moment, he spoke.

"What I am about to tell you is something many powerful people in many places do not wish civilians, even those with a trainer's license, to know." Liam sighed, and shook his head. "Despite the fact that this will be hard to believe, I need you to remember the hints I've given you during our short time together, both spoken and seen. I also would like you to promise me, lad, that you won't repeat this to just anyone, not for my safety, but for yours. Do you?"

I gave him a measuring glance, but eventually nodded. He'd been nothing but a friend to me, after all, despite one that kept a lot of secrets. "I do."

"Good. You'll understand why I've asked when we're done." Liam's eyes gained a far-away look, and he leaned back. "I'll have to start with the basics, so you can put it all together. Cal, how does a pokeball work?"

I raised my eyebrows and answered as I was taught in school. "Complex science that breaks a pokemon down into raw data and makes it easy to transport. It also encourages a bond between that pokemon and whoever possesses the ball, to make training easier."

Liam smiled, but shook his head. "No. One more question. What gives pokemon their special powers? How can they, for example, shoot beams of ice or fire, form barriers of light, fly even though they're much too heavy to? How are they different from regular animals?"

"They uh…" I was stumped. How could they do all that? "Crazy biological differences? Weird evolution? I'm sure there's a rational explanation."

Liam laughed, and shook his head again. "No 'rational' explanation for things like that, lad! It's spontaneous manipulation of internal energy, the act of creation itself, what many a child would call... magic."

I scoffed. Magic? That was ridiculous, and I told Liam so. He grinned, and reached out to the flames in front of us. His brow furrowed for a moment, and then, to my shock, the flames shot up and wrapped around his fingers, weaving and flaring but not burning at all. After enjoying my facial expression, Liam waved and the fire vanished. He held up his hand. Not a mark on it, not even any soot.

"If they can do it, so can we, Cal. Life energy is in everything that's alive, and even in some things that aren't. Regular beasts may be too stupid to harness it, and pokemon may have a hell of a natural advantage with their massive production of it, but all it takes it hard work, discipline, and a little something to give us the right push. Say, do you still have that powder I gave you?" Liam winked, and my eyes widened.

"What was in that?! What have you done to me! I trusted you!"

He laughed. "Calm down, lad! It didn't hurt you. It's a special mix of mine, one you're not liable to find on your own. I said I'd tell you what was in it one day, and I will, but we've got other things to go through first. I'm sure you've noticed by now that you've been feeling pretty good? A bit stronger, more stable? That's not just the exercise. Were I never to tell you this, though I planned to one day, all it would have done in the long run was improved your senses and maybe saved your life out in the harsh wilds." Liam took a deep breath. "This life energy has many different names. I prefer 'aura' or just 'life energy', but there's also 'ki', 'nen', 'brio', 'vitality', 'spirit'... It's all the same. You build it up by focus, discipline, strength, and good old practice. That fire trick there? Took me twenty years." He chuckled.

"Twenty years? So you've been using this aura stuff your whole adult life?"

Liam gave me a look like he wasn't sure I was serious. "How old do you think I am, lad?"

"Mid 40s I guess." I shrugged.

"Mid 40s!" Liam laughed. "Still got it, apparently. I'm over 90 years old."

"90?!" I exclaimed. Sure, his face was a little lined, but there was no way he was that old. I decided he must be messing with me.

Liam seemed to sense my disbelief. "Nah, it's true! I understand, I don't look it. But it's one of the many benefits of working hard to grow your aura; more life force, more life. Your body toughens, heals faster, you age slower, move quicker, think easier. If it was up to me I'd have everyone working at it."

"Why doesn't everyone?" I asked. It seemed like a pretty damn good deal to me. Liam sighed.

"There was a time when we did, long ago. Pokemon were rarer, then; still around, of course. But not used. They were dangerous, unpredictable; it wasn't until a man, using his skill in imbuing life energy, formed the first crude pokeball out of an apricorn, that humanity considered weaponizing them. As strong as the great warriors of the past were, we humans are not nearly as naturally gifted as pokemon. With such monsters bonded to us we quickly fell into the most terrible war the world had ever seen, before or since. Our great cities were destroyed, artifacts scattered, wild energies from our battles sank into the soil, contaminated the air, the water. Mutating the animals into yet more pokemon. It seemed like it was never going to end, that we'd drive ourselves to extinction and leave a charred husk of a world behind us… Until the Great Ones intervened." Liam took a sip of water and cleared his throat. "The Great Ones, who you may know as Legendaries from the old folk tales, are pokemon only in the sense that the forms they take resemble them. What they actually are, no one is sure. My personal theory is that they're embodiments of certain types of elemental aura, so incredibly powerful that none can stand against them but themselves. Even now we tell tales of the world being shaped by the struggles between the Legendary beasts. These tales are not entirely wrong. They smashed the remaining armies of our many nations, scattered our species, and gave us their edict: Humanity was never to cause such destruction again."

We were silent for a few moments while I let that sink in. This all seemed extraordinarily important, why had no one told me before? But… "Why does that keep us from just learning to use our auras?"

Liam's expression darkened. "It doesn't. But it is the opinion of some in our world's governing bodies that this knowledge should be suppressed. They let us stay weak, at the mercy of wild beasts, stop us from expanding, taking the territory that was once ours, making it safe for our children! They throttle our progress, make us suffer, all out of fear that one day we'll overstep and the Great Ones will return! But this is not what humanity is. We were once truly mighty. Our civilization stretched the entirety of the world, we were free to innovate, discover, build without having to live in fear!" The volume of his voice grew steadily as he ranted on; his expression furious. "They force us to be nothing but ignorant peasants! But they'll all see; times are changing, people are learning. My work, the work of my close friends, will not go to waste. We will taste glory again at the top of this existence, as is our right, and if that provokes the Legends then so be it! Better to live one day as a king than an eternity as a slave! MY LOSS WILL NOT BE IN VAIN!" Liam yelled, his eyes wild. Around him the fallen leaves were blown back; the fire flickered and almost went out. I stood and backed up quickly. Liam noticed this, and after a few deep breaths, he seemed to relax. "Sorry lad," He said, his voice a bit weak. "I've long since passed the point at which this fight turned personal. It isn't yours, won't be unless you choose it to, and I shouldn't trouble you with it."

"It's alright, really," I said. "I understand."

"You don't. But that's okay." The rage had completely left Liam's face now, leaving his expression somewhat empty. I walked over and, somewhat hesitantly, put a hand on his shoulder. He gave me a hollow smile. "Thanks. I'll be fine." Liam then stood. "Do you see why you need to keep this a secret? The league'll crack down on you if they catch any hint of this type of stuff, and you'd be hard pressed to get away from them. They let all their top dogs train in aura, plus they've got ridiculously strong pokemon."

"They get to do it and we don't? Hypocrites."

Liam laughed. "Absolutely. They claim to use it for 'justice', but really they're just reaping all the benefits and keeping us in chains."

I glared at the ground in front of me, fuming. If we'd all been taught aura, maybe my mother would have been strong enough to get over my father's loss, or stop it in the first place. Bernard never would have died to that machop, nor would I have been injured. So many people I knew over the years would still be alive… even that kid we found in the forest, if he could have done to the bugs what Liam did to the ariados there wouldn't have been any problems. Though perhaps he had been a bit too young.

"Anyways, that's not all there is to it, but that's enough for tonight. How about you eat then go exercise, Cal, and I'll catch a bit more ariados venom would have killed a normal man several times over, and even with how durable I am, it still takes its toll."

I nodded and let him leave, before preparing some food for myself. I had a great deal to think about.

Most importantly, how do I use this power?

\\-/-\\-/-\\-/

Bright and early I found myself back on the path with a significantly more sociable Liam. We actually managed to make a bit of small talk, though any time I tried to broach a serious topic he'd change the subject. By mid-day we found ourselves on the outskirts of the forest, Pewter barely visible in the distance. Liam had us stop in a small field and fished through his backpack for a few moments before handing me a few packages of pokemon food and some supplies. I gave him a questioning look.

"This is where we part ways." I opened my mouth to protest, but he held up his hand. "I'm sure you don't want to have to head back into town. If you cut to the east here you should be able to make it to the checkpoint by the entrance to Mt. Moon by nightfall. These supplies are more than enough to get you to Cerulean."

"But we're not done! You haven't even taught me how to use aura yet!"

Liam chuckled. "You're on the path to success now, Cal, but you're not yet ready for that. We'll meet again one day. I'm sure of it. If you've bulked up and learned true discipline, then we'll start, not a moment sooner. Just keep up your exercises, both physical and mental, and you'll get there." He held out his hand. I took it. As expected, Liam pulled me in, but after a quick glance at my eyes he gave me a pat on the shoulder with his other hand and let me go. "You still have that spark, lad. Keep it alive. Let it grow."

"I will. Don't worry."

He gave me a warm smile, and walked off. I watched him go, feeling an odd sense of loss. Sure I'd been alone for my trip to Pallet, but I knew we were meeting back up right after. Now… I wasn't sure when I'd see him again. My mentor was gone, and it was up to me to truly start my journey. I took a deep breath, and began moving through the countryside towards Mt. Moon, which had always loomed in the distance.

The walk was uneventful for the first few hours, as fields and trees gave way to rocky craggy Pewter-y goodness. I didn't see anyone else, nor any pokemon, and was beginning to think I would reach the cave with little difficulty. That is, until I was struck in the back by a rock and almost knocked over.

Upon whirling around I saw the culprit; a small, pissed-off looking geodude had risen out of the dirt just behind me and was prying up another rock to throw. Geodude were generally fairly peaceful creatures, but rocky hide or not, anyone will get mad if you step on them, and I was pretty sure I had accidentally done so. I began to turn and run, which is what I'd always had to do in the past, when I remembered… I'm a trainer!

A quick reach to my belt and a flash of light, and Machop stood before me, glancing around. When his eyes fell on the geodude he bared his teeth in a grin and shifted into a fighting pose. The geodude responded with a grinding roar, large eyes narrowing.

"This is a perfect chance to try out your Brick Break!" I shouted. Machop nodded, then dashed forward and with a resounding CRACK, struck the geodude directly on the top. Unlike with the wartortle, though, this hit obviously did some severe damage. The geodude's rocky shell practically shattered, bits of it flying through the air, and its eyes closed as it slumped back. A trickle of blood flowed from the new fissure in its head. I cringed, and machop backed away, staring at his hand in disbelief.

After a moment's deliberation, I figured that I couldn't just leave the geodude hurt and vulnerable like this. I reached down to my belt and grabbed the empty pokeball. I hesitated before I threw, but another good look at just how damaged the creature was made my mind up for me. There was a flash of light and the geodude was safely in stasis. I'd heard that there was a medical area at the Mt. Moon checkpoint; I'd get it looked at there.

After congratulating Machop on a very well-executed attack, which he seemed happy about despite still seemingly in a bit of shock, we carried on. Machop's presence at my side seemed enough to discourage any more rock-throwers, though I did notice a few spearow eyeing us from the sky. Spearow can be a bit territorial, but thankfully these ones were distracted by chasing off a large hawk before they could cause us any trouble. We came upon the checkpoint just as the sun was beginning to set.

\\-/-\\-/-\\-/

The cave entrance was enormous; I'd heard it was even larger inside, but that was hard for me to imagine. Off to the left side was a collection of buildings. As I made my way towards them I noticed a smaller building in front with the words 'Check In' lit up above it; I decided it was probably smart to head there first, and so did, Machop trailing behind me.

The inside was surprisingly spacious. There was a desk on the far end labeled 'Receptionist', warmly colored wood paneling on the walls, and tons of comfy looking chairs scattered off to one side. I walked over to the desk and rang the small bell on it.

There was a sudden loud *THUMP* that made me flinch back. A short, brown haired young woman with bright green eyes popped up from behind the desk, holding her head and wincing. "Are you alright?" I asked. "What were you doing under the desk?"

"Ow…" she said. Then she glanced up on me and her demeanor changed entirely; her arms snapped to her sides, and she straightened up. "I wasn't asleep and welcome to the check-in station! What can I do for you?" She gave me an obviously forced grin. I returned one of my own.

"Yes, I'd like to rent a room for the night and get a pokemon checked out, if you could point me to the medical area."

"Yes, yes, of course! Can I see your ID?"

I passed it over and she waved it beneath the desk somewhere, then returned it to me, along with a receipt. "Alright, Mr. Stone, your room is in the second building to the right, 5C. The nurse is stationed at the first building to your left. Have a nice night!" I thanked her and walked out, glancing back as I reached the door to see her wincing and rubbing her head again. I chuckled.

The medical building looked just like all the others on the outside, but inside it was an almost perfect mock-up of a pokecenter lobby. A woman with oddly bright strawberry blonde hair stood behind the counter, tinkering with the large machine next to her. I walked up to her, and she turned and smiled. "Can I help you, sir?"

"Yeah, I encountered a geodude on the way in and Machop here," I gave him a pat on the shoulder, "roughed it up pretty badly. I was wondering if you could take a look at it."

I held out it's pokeball, and the nurse took it and said, "Certainly, sir!" She placed it in one of the slots atop her machine, and it glowed for a moment before spitting out a piece of paper. The nurse picked up the paper, and her smiling expression faded and became one of shock. "What did you do to this pokemon?!"

"Got a little carried away with a brick break, I'm afraid." I said, giving her a guilty smile, one which Machop matched.

"I'll say! You've completely split its shell! Internal damage as well! I'll be up half the night working at this, and you'll need to provide additional care for a week!" She glared at me, and I backed away with my hands held up.

"I'm sorry! It won't happen again." I said, and she grumbled angrily and held out her hand. I gave her my trainer ID, she scanned it, and ordered me to come back early tomorrow. I left in a hurry, so as not to tempt her wrath further, and found where I'd be staying the night easy enough.

Machop and I spent a while exercising in the room, which, like the check-in station, was quite spacious, then meditated. Afterwards I pulled out my pokedex and looked up 'geodude'.

It looked like I had my next team member.


	11. Connections

As much information as there had been on machops, it was nothing compared to the virtual encyclopedia on geodudes. I figured it had to do with how much more common they are, found in caves in many regions, not just Kanto. There was way too much for me to go over in one night, but I was able to find some quick tips on training (geodude, while hard to damage, are very slow and so until they evolve they shouldn't fight anything quick), their attitudes (docile and not very clever, though they can learn, and are very loyal), their general weaknesses (under no circumstances should they be hit by water; unfortunate, considering I was going to cerulean), how often they need to eat (rarely, they usually can just munch on nearby soil, especially if it's rich in minerals), and how long they live (a geodude only lives 10 or so years, though if evolved all the way into their final form, Golem, they're practically immortal, like Rhydon. Getting that strong is exceptionally rare in the wild, though). Overall, it looked like my new pokemon would be reliable and easy to manage. That was a relief.

After a good night's rest, the bed being significantly more comfortable than the cots in the forest checkpoint shacks, I woke and headed down to the medical building to pick up my geodude. I was greeted by a very tired looking nurse, who handed me my pokeball and a small bottle of lotion. She ordered me to rub the lotion on the geodude's wound once every couple of days until I ran out, as apparently it would encourage regrowth of it's shell. I thanked her profusely and headed outside towards a nearby field. I figured I'd meet my new teammate before we headed into the cave.

I released Machop first; he'd slept in his ball last night, due to their only being one bed. I liked him plenty, sure, but not nearly enough to snuggle up with him. We nodded at each other in greeting, and I told him what I planned to do. He took a defensive stance, just in case the geodude was still a little angry about what he'd done to it.

In a flash it was before us, a large crevasse in it's head exposing leathery brown skin. It glared at Machop, and glanced over at me. I smiled.

"Hey bud. I caught you to get you healed up, and so I'm your trainer now. We're going to go on a hell of an adventure together, and you're going to be much stronger for it." The geodude's eyes narrowed, and it pointed at Machop with one rough rocky hand. I laughed. "Yeah, you'll get a chance for revenge, don't you worry. But not right now; we've got to get through Mt. Moon first, and I have to put this," I held up the bottle of lotion, "on you to help you regrow your shell. Sound good?"

After a few more wary glances between me and Machop, the geodude shifted it's face towards the ground and then back up, which I took as a nod. I walked over, tailed by Machop, and began to spread the lotion onto the exposed skin. It felt just as leathery as it looked, and very warm.

After I'd finished up, I pulled out my pokedex and scanned my geodude. It read:

"Geodude: Male. The Rock Pokemon. Height: 1' Weight: 40lbs

Often mistaken as boulders by passers-by, Geodude are among the most common pokemon to find in hilly or mountainous areas. They usually prefer to keep to themselves, but will throw rocks if they feel threatened.

This geodude is Level 4. He likely knows to tackle, defense curl, and a rudimentary rock throw."

Below that was some additional tips and a light brown circular symbol with a mountain on it, meant to signify 'rock type'. Only level 4, eh? That explains why he's so small, I thought. I wonder what level Machop is at now? I shot a scan his way, and the pokedex read a level of 17, as well as two newly listed moves: Brick Break and something called Seismic Toss, which I was sure I hadn't seen Liam teach him. Interesting.

I returned Geodude and, Machop at my side, began to walk towards the cave entrance. Almost as an afterthought I pulled out that red cloth Giovanni had given me and tied it around my right arm, just in case I ran into one of his friends. They'd be useful for knowing if I was headed the right way. Like many kids in Pewter I'd grown up hearing stories of those who took a wrong turn in the Mt. Moon caves and ended up starving or dying to the powerful beasts that lived far underground; I had no interest in ending up like them.

\\-/-\\-/-\\-/

I hadn't gone more than a hundred feet into the cave and I was already being swarmed by damn zubat. It had always been said that they were pests, but this was ridiculous. At least they weren't particularly strong, and Machop could bat them aside with ease, but the few times they managed to slip by him and get to me, those teeth hurt.

The rumors were true, though; it was massive in there. I could barely make out the ceiling, filled with sharp stalactites that I desperately hoped wouldn't fall on us and dotted here and there with sleeping zubat. At least the way forward seemed fairly straight, plus there was plenty of artificial lighting along the walls and in some areas of the floor. I stayed as close to them as I could, determined to avoid as many zubat as possible. They didn't seem to like the bright lights.

A couple of hours of walking later, the zubat had let up somewhat, though I'd begun to notice lots off odd lobster-looking creatures with mushrooms on their backs. A quick scan with my pokedex revealed them as 'paras', a rather weak grass/bug type. They didn't give us any trouble, just skittered out of the way and watched us as we passed. It was a bit creepy.

The corridor eventually made a rather hard turn to the right, and the path split. The lights continued on both sides, so, assuming it didn't matter, I picked the left side and carried on. Another couple of hours of walking later and I was a bit concerned; the lights had tapered off a bit, but so had the ambient noise of the local pokemon. I hadn't even had a zubat attack in half an hour or so.

In the distance, leaning up against the wall, I began to make out a figure wearing dark clothing. I called out to him as I approached, and though I saw him look up, he didn't move. A second figure joined the first, and they began to walk towards me, hands hovering by their pockets. I slowed. Perhaps these guys weren't friendly.

As we got within twenty or so feet of one another, I stopped, and so did they. We eyed each other, them focusing on my machop in particular, who was staring at the pair with narrowed eyes. I spoke. "Hey, I don't want any trouble. I was just going to ask if I was headed the right way to get to Cerulean. Do you know?"

I saw the one on the left's gaze drift to my right arm, and his eyes widened. He nudged his partner and pointed. Their expressions immediately shifted to polite smiles, and they moved their hands down to their sides. "Yeah, sir, you're headed the right way. Just take a right at the next fork and you'll loop towards the exit tunnel. Almost there, just another couple of hours."

I walked past, thanking them. They kept up their smiles the whole time, though it seemed a bit strained. After walking a ways down the corridor I glanced back to see the first guy leaning up against the wall again, and the second guy gone. In the distance, towards where I'd come from, there was movement, and my eyes focused on it. Even from so far I could see that there was an enormous purple snake-like creature moving across the corridor. Had that been behind me?! I turned and quickened my pace, determined to get out of this damn cave with its 8 billion zubats and those creepy uniformed guys. And their snake.

\\-/-\\-/-\\-/

It was mid-afternoon when I exited Mt. Moon, and the light was blinding for a good few moments before my eyes adjusted. The land I saw before me was… beautiful.

Green and lush fields, peppered with many lakes and rivers, went on nearly as far as I could see, and ahead of me, nestled in a valley and next to the sea, was a glittering city. Cerulean. I'd heard tales of how fertile the land was out here, but I had no idea it'd be this nice. Amazing that all this is just a mountain away from Pewter!

A dirt road wound from the mouth of the cave towards the city, and Machop and I walked down it side by side, enjoying the view and the easy downhill slope. For a while things were peaceful, and the sun on our faces combined with the gentle breeze was very pleasant. But, of course, the local wildlife couldn't let things be.

As we passed by a particularly thick patch of brush there was a rustling noise, then a fierce growl. Out from the undergrowth burst the biggest raticate I'd ever seen, brown fur bristling and jagged teeth bared at us. Machop jumped in front of me and prepared to fight, a savage grin on his face.

I figured this would be a perfect time to find out what that new move was; raticate was a normal type, and a rather defenseless one at that. Machop shouldn't have any trouble. I shouted, "Use seismic toss!"

Machop nodded and leaped forward. The raticate, hissing and spitting, leapt towards him as well. Instead of hitting it, as I expected, Machop held out his arms and wrapped them around it, ignoring it's slashing claws. He then jumped up ridiculously high, a good 15 feet at least, and plummeted to the ground, smashing the raticate into the dirt with a loud *THUMP*. Dust flew up around them, and for a moment I wasn't able to see anything. Then there was a pained screech. The dust cleared, and I saw Machop frantically karate-chopping at the raticate, which had attached itself to his shoulder with glowing white fangs. "Focus energy karate chop! Knock it off of you!" I shouted, and Machop tried, but the damn thing just bit down tighter, causing another screech of pain. It didn't look like I had any other choice, if I wanted Machop to avoid serious injury… "Brick break!"

There was a muted thwack and an audible ripping sound as the raticate was torn from Machop's shoulder and thrown across the road, smashing into a tree. It lay still for a moment, then began to drag itself back into the bushes. Machop, bleeding heavily but still pissed, moved to pursue it. "Wait!" I said. Machop stopped, reluctantly, and turned to look at me. "You won. It's over. Let me heal up that wound, alright?"

Machop bared it's teeth and kicked a bit of dirt in the retreating raticate's direction, then sat down. I hurried over and sprayed his injuries with a potion; it took a couple of minutes, but they closed up well enough, leaving another small scar. I decided to have Machop looked at when I got to the Cerulean pokemon center. You never know what kind of diseases a rat could have.

We continued on our way.

\\-/-\\-/-\\-/

Machop and I reached Cerulean at dusk, which was a relief; I didn't want to be walking the countryside at night with crazy creatures like that raticate around. The city itself was similar in size to Viridian, but without walls and much more simply laid out. To the north-east the ocean stretched into the distance; I resolved to check that out in the morning. Directly to the north there was a long bridge leading towards the cape, a popular vacation spot that I'd seen many brochures for back in Pewter. I enjoyed the salty sea air as I walked the darkening streets, and it didn't take long at all to find the PokeCenter, what with its bright red roof.

The lobby was fairly big; lots of places to sit, magazines to read, and a big board with various papers and posters on it. I walked over to check it out. There were fliers for 'Sensational Sisters' shows, whatever that was, a few notes from people who needed odd jobs done, a large advertisement for a very expensive bike shop, and a small notice for a daily pokemon tournament being held on the northern bridge. The prize, apparently, was a golden nugget worth $5000; selling it would keep me going for quite a while. I definitely wanted to win that, if I could.

After checking in and getting Machop looked over real quick, we headed up to our room. It was much more luxurious than the one in Pewter. The bed was larger, with several smaller ones scattered about; there was also a huge fish tank with very thick glass, probably for water pokemon, against one wall. I released my geodude onto one of the beds. He glanced around curiously, but eventually settled in and closed his eyes. After Machop and I did some quick exercises and stretches, we started up with some meditation and dozed off.

The next morning I awoke to a rough growl, similar to stones grinding together. I opened my eyes to see Machop and my geodude staring at one another, postures threatening. I sighed. "Guys, no fighting in the room. Machop, you know better. Geodude, he's your teammate, he's not going to just attack you." Machop looked suitably ashamed, but my geodude just grunted and glanced away. Just then, I had a thought. "Do either of you two want nicknames? I don't mind just calling you Machop and Geodude, but I can call you something else if you'd like."

Machop shook his head violently no, as I'd expected he would; machop as a species hate names and titles unless they feel they've earned them. Geodude, however, glanced my way and grunted, which I assumed meant 'yes'.

I began to list some names off the top of my head: Brutus, Boulder, Crag, Stoney… Geodude didn't seem impressed with any of them. Finally, after many more tries, I said, "Destro?" My geodude grunted again and lightly bashed his fists against the floor, seemingly pleased. I smiled. "Destro it is, then." I held up a pokeball, returned the newly-named Destro, and turned to Machop. "You ready to explore the city, bud? See the ocean?"

Machop shot me an excited grin, and we headed out. I was pretty excited, too. I'd never seen the ocean up close.


	12. Competition

All the stories I'd read about the sea, the tales I'd been told by my mother when she was still somewhat coping and travelers passing through Pewter, didn't at all prepare me for the experience of actually being there. A soft, salty breeze brushed across my face as I stood on the docks and stared out at the water, stretching as far as the horizon and beyond. Machop stood next to me, reflected light causing his eyes to practically sparkle.

I wondered what could be living in the lightless depths, a place unexplored and mysterious to us… I thought about the family I'd never met, living far across the waves in Hoenn, and hoped they were doing well… I also, desperately, wanted to go swimming.

Unfortunately there didn't seem to be any place to do that along the docks. The shore was rocky and often blocked off with concrete slabs, and the water directly below looked murky and had bits of trash from the city floating in it. Not to mention all the boats. There were hundreds of them slicing through the waves; yachts, speed boats, and even a few enormous cargo ships, decks stacked with huge metal boxes full of who knows what. If I were to be hit by one of those during my swim, well, there'd probably not be much left of me. I knew there were plenty of nice beaches up on the cape, though, and so after a few stops to browse interesting looking shops, Machop and I made our way north towards the bridge.

Before it was even in sight, however, a commanding female voice shouted "Halt!" I turned, and immediately came face to face with the biggest dog I'd ever seen. It's head was at my chest level, and it's bright orange striped fur seemed to smolder. Neither Machop nor I had heard it approach, though as he noticed how close it was he sprang between me and the dog, holding out his arms and bracing himself for a sudden impact. It growled, a deep, menacing sound.

"Trainer!" The voice shouted again, and I glanced behind the terrifying canine to see an attractive teal-haired woman wearing an oddly tight-fitted police uniform and flanked by two grim faced men holding batons. "Identify yourself and state your business here!"

I stumbled back and pulled out my trainer ID, eyes once again locked on the huge dog, which I now recognized as an arcanine. It was obviously well trained, considering how it held back and waited for further instruction despite being challenged by Machop, and I couldn't help but recognize how elegant and, well, _badass_ it looked. I decided that I definitely wanted one.

I held out my ID towards the woman, reluctant to move past that arcanine. She walked up with quick, confident steps, and snatched it out of my hand, glancing at it, and back at me a few more times than I felt was necessary.

"My name's Calvin Stone," I said, "from Pewter. I'm just passing through, and was about to head north to see the cape. Is there a problem?"

The woman gave me a hard stare. I kept eye contact, just like Liam had taught me, and noticed hers were a beautiful shade of honey brown. Eventually, she nodded, and handed me back my ID. "Rocko! Back down, he's clear," she yelled, and the arcanine stopped baring it's fangs and retreated back to the two men, where it sat and watched us. "Sorry about that. There was a burglary nearby just now, and when we saw you with a pokemon out, I jumped to conclusions. I'm Jenny." She held out her hand, and I shook it with a smile.

"No problem, officer. You're just doing your job."

She smiled back. It was a nice smile. "Yep. I'm glad you understand. There's been a lot of this kind of thing recently, and we're always on the lookout for leads. If you see anything suspicious, come by the station and tell me, okay?"

I agreed, and the officers, along with Rocko, walked off. Machop relaxed, but he still watched them leave with suspicious eyes. I watched as well. _I definitely need an arcanine._

\\-/-\\-/-\\-/

There was a small crowd standing off to one side at the entrance of the bridge, next to a cordoned-off sandy area with chairs set up around it. Curious, I headed over to see what was going on.

A few people gave Machop wary looks and stepped away as I approached, and I was able to see a table with a few pieces of paper on it, as well as a slim, smiling man wearing a black shirt and holding a pen. He gave my pokemon an interested look, and turned to grin at me. "Here to sign up, kid?"

I blinked at him. "For what?"

"The tournament, of course!" He pointed at the sandy enclosure and I almost facepalmed. Of _course_ that was what this was!

"I didn't know it was happening today!"

The man laughed. "It happens every day! Now," he held out the pen. "Gonna sign up?"

I nodded, and wrote my name down. "You need my trainer ID?" I asked. He shook his head.

"Nah kid, I care about talent, not who has money to pay off the league. Good to know you have one, though." He gave me a good natured wink, and I smiled. This guy seemed pretty nice. "Tournament starts in…" he looked at his watch. "Half an hour. Shouldn't take long, not too many contestants today. You're welcome to wait on the bleachers, Mr. Stone, and good luck!" I thanked him and went to sit down. Machop, who had been listening in, was pacing back and forth with an excited expression.

It wasn't long before the crowd had taken their seats, and contestants were called over to the desk. The man had been right, there really weren't many people entered; only four of us in total, and the others looked quite young. But hey, it meant a better chance to win that nugget, so I wasn't complaining.

"This will be a one-on-one tournament," the man said, looking at each of us in turn. "If at any time your pokemon is severely disabled, or returned, you lose. Try not to do too much damage, though, alright? There's only so much a potion can heal." We all agreed, though one of the other contestants, a short blonde girl who couldn't have been older than 13, looked a bit worried.

We drew numbers from a hat to decide who we'd face first. I ended up paired with an arrogant looking teen, who immediately gave me a sneer and pulled a scratched-up pokeball from his pocket. His sneer faded a bit as his eyes brushed over Machop, and I shot him a grin.

"Okay, first up… Stone and Hawkins! Please enter the ring and release-" the man glanced at Machop, "Get your pokemon in place!"

The onlookers cheered as 'Hawkins' and I took our places across from one another, and Machop entered the arena, practically vibrating in anticipation. Hawkins scowled at me, and threw his pokeball. In a red flash, there stood a small, round, pink… jigglypuff? _Couldn't have called that one_ , I thought.

The black-shirted man raised his arm. "Three, two, one…" He jerked it down. "Begin!"

Hawkins and I shouted at the same time. "Sing!" "Punt it!" Machop sprang forward, but just before he reached the creature, the most soothing sound I'd ever heard filled the air. Machop paused, leg held in mid-air, and I began to feel warm and drowsy, as well as at peace for the first time since I could remember. It was like a mother's lullaby, not that my mother ever-

That thought snapped me out of it. I shook my head and shouted, "Machop, do it!" He responded instantly, his foot shooting forward and into the pink puffball, which, with a high pitched "oomph!", was thrown full force into one of the poles holding the rope around the arena. It slunk to the ground, obviously unconscious.

All around us people seemed to be shaking off the effects of the song, though a few were fast asleep. I received a groggy round of applause for my victory, and the scowling Hawkins returned his pokemon and stalked off without saying a word. Followed by a proud and beaming machop, I went and took a seat in the bleachers.

Next was a round between Dane (a chubby, friendly looking dude) and Evans (The little blonde). They each released their pokemon; Dane had an odd fanged bell-shaped plant pokemon that I knew was a weepinbell, and Evans released a rather vicious looking pidgeotto, which gave a terrible caw as it took to the air. It glared down at Dane's pokemon, and I winced. This was going to be rough.

I wasn't wrong. Despite the weepinbell giving an admirable performance, whipping the Pidgeotto several times with it's vines and blasting it with a face full of paralyzing powder, it couldn't stand up to those talons. It took two solid slashes before the plant fell back, body leaking a pale green fluid. Dane recalled it immediately and rushed off, no doubt to get it looked over. Evans called over her bird and tended to it's wounds, spraying several potions and a paralyze heal over it.

Knowing Machop's weakness to 'flying type' creatures (though I was still unsure exactly why they hurt fighting types so much) I turned to see if he was up for it. His determined expression and bright eyes answered my question before I could ask. I smiled warmly at him and leaned over to whisper in the small hole that served as his ear. "Make sure to get it's wing, bud. If it's crippled on the ground, you can finish it off easily." Machop nodded at me, and we got up to take our positions.

"Alright folks!" the black-shirted man announced. "This is our finals match today, Stone versus Evans! Let's make it a good one! Contestants, are you ready?" We all nodded, except the pidgeotto, who screeched a challenge. It was obviously still up for battling, though it seemed a little tired. "Good! Three, two, one… Begin!"

"Wing attack!" Evans yelled. I said nothing, just watched as Machop's arm began to glow with yellow energy, his eyes locked on the pidgeotto barreling through the air towards him with it's wings outstretched. There was a SMACK as they impacted, and Machop was bashed into the ground with a cry of pain. The pidgeotto was swooped back up, and seemed to be awaiting further instructions. Evans noticed and shouted "Gust!" but that brief pause allowed Machop to get his legs back under him and launch himself aside, causing the mini-tornado of air to miss him and dissipate harmlessly. He stood and prepared another chop, flickering with his pale yellow aura, but was obviously pretty beaten up; somehow that one direct hit had done serious damage. Evans seemed to notice this too. "Air slash!"

The pidgeotto angled down, sharp talons held out in a threatening pose, and hurtled towards Machop with it's beak open in a vicious cry. Machop took a deep breath, and I held mine. The second and a half it took for the bird to meet him felt like an eternity. This time, however, instead of a SMACK, there was a CRACK and the bird was bashed into the sand, where it skidded a few feet and hopped up, left wing held awkwardly. "Hit it!" I yelled, and Machop rushed forward, only slightly slowed by a weak gust from the pidgeotto's right wing, and smashed the bird in the plumage with his fist. It let out a strangled cry, fell back, and disappeared in a flash of red light. Evans stood, holding her pokeball, and seemingly hyperventilating. I called out congratulations to Machop and recalled him, vowing to get him healed as soon as possible, before hurrying over to her.

"Hey, you okay?" I asked, and reached out a hand to steady her. It looked like she was about to faint. After holding her in place for a few moments, though, she took a final, deep breath, and a single tear ran down her face.

"It's not my pokemon, it's my brothers, he's going to kill me now that I got her hurt. I just…" she sniffed, a second tear joining the first. "I just wanted to win that nugget and buy us some nice things!"

I felt awful, and briefly wondered if I had been too heartless to have Machop target the bird's wing… But no, it had been necessary. Machop would have been seriously hurt otherwise. There _was_ something I could do, however. I fished through my bag for a moment and pulled out a bright orange spray bottle. I handed it to Evans.

"Here," I said, "this is a Super Potion. I bought it earlier today. It won't heal the pidgeotto's wing completely, but it'll do a pretty good job. Use this, then have your brother check it into a pokecenter; if it's not so bad, maybe you won't get in too much trouble."

She gave me muffled thanks, as she was covering most of her face to try to hide her tears, and hurried off in the direction of the city. After watching her leave, I turned, and saw the black-shirted man standing there, smiling at me. "That was a nice thing you did."

"Ah, it was nothing." I said, embarrassed. In reality it wasn't; that potion had cost quite a bit, though now that I'd won that nugget… "So do I win?"

The man laughed. "You do! Here you are." He pulled a beautiful golden orb from his pocket, and held it out to me. I took it; not too heavy, but very smooth. "Tell the guy at the mart Johnny sent ya, he'll give you a good price." I thanked him profusely, still staring at the exceptionally valuable orb, and had just turned to leave, when he said, "wait." I looked back. "I've got an offer to extend to you, if you're interested. A way to make a bit more money, and to serve a good cause."

An offer? Well, he seemed like a pretty nice guy, and he had just handed me a ridiculously valuable piece of gold. I figured I'd hear him out. "What is it?"

"I'm part of an organization called Rocket. We're a close-knit group that've been growing pretty rapidly in the past few years; we do activism, public service, charity work, armed escorts, all sorts of things. I watched you handle your machop rather skillfully today, and was impressed by you assisting that young girl. I'd like to offer you a place with us. If you keep up that kind of initiative, you could rise pretty high!"

"Rocket, eh?" I was sure I'd heard that name before, somewhere… but for the life of me I couldn't place it. "I'm just starting my travels, Johnny. I really can't commit to anything right now. But thank you."

Johnny laughed. "Don't worry about that! We'd hardly expect anything full-time from you, just helping out our guys if you happen to be in their area for some extra cash. Listen, you don't have to make up your mind right now. Take this," he held out a card with an address scribbled on it, and I took it. "We're having an orientation meeting tomorrow night at 7. I invite you to come by, see what we're about. You can decide then."

I nodded. "Alright, man. I'll be there." We shook hands, and I headed back towards the center. The trip to the cape would have to wait; My friend needed healing.

\\-/-\\-/-\\-/

The nurses on duty told me it'd be a couple hours before Machop was back in fightin' shape, so I took the opportunity to head down to the Mart and sell that nugget. With $5000 added to my trainer account, suddenly I was in a much better position; I decided to buy my pokemon some celebration treats. Machop certainly deserved it, and maybe it'd make Destro warm up to me a bit more. I grabbed Machop's pokeball from the front desk when I returned, and headed up to my room.

A few moments later my pokemon were in front of me, happily (at least in Machop's case; hard to tell with Destro) munching at their pokesnacks. I rubbed a bit of that lotion on Destro's leathery head-crease. He didn't even seem to notice.

I glanced at the clock, just to confirm that, yeah, there was definitely no time to go swimming today. With a sigh, I laid back on the comfy pokecenter bed and began thinking of other things to do. I eventually decided to stop by the gym; while I knew I was nowhere near the level I'd need to be to challenge even it's beginner badge teams, if Brock's gym was anything to judge by, it'd be interesting to see it, at least.

The Cerulean gym was gorgeous. From the outside, steadily waving beams flowed up light-blue sidingl to a dark blue roof, and someone had painted very realistic bubbles and fish along the walls. Inside was initially rather disappointing; a small room greeted you, containing a wide desk, two doors, and several fuzzy aquamarine chairs to one side. After talking to the receptionist, though, and finding out that this was the home of the 'sensational sisters' show, I was able to arrange a tour. Behind those doors, the gym was _amazing._

Most of the floor consisted of pools of various sizes with clear, glistening water. Surrounding these pools were wide paths that contained various types of beach-chairs, from typical straight-backed ones to ones that were practically flat and even ones that seemed to be fluffy armchairs covered in a waterproof skin. The place was mostly abandoned; in the far corners there were large colorful horned fish that would occasionally jump and pose, fish I recognized as 'goldeen'.

My tour guide wasn't very thorough. She just pointed at the place, explained how the local rangers focused primarily on water pokemon and used the pools to train, and informed me there was a staging room in the very back for 'shows', but that she wouldn't let me see that unless I bought a ticket. I decided against it, and walked out. The place was too flimsy, too wet. I much preferred Pewter's style of strength, stability, and simplicity. Cerulean gym seemed less like a gym and more like a strange work of art.

Back on the city streets, I wandered until I found a place to grab a bite to eat, and did so, sprinkling a bit more of Liam's powder over it of course. Then I headed back to the pokecenter for training and meditation. If I was to learn to become truly strong one day, I couldn't afford to be a slacker.

As I settled down to sleep that night, I decided that I'd head to the cape first thing in the morning. I'd want at least a few hours in the water before I had to head back to check out that 'orientation'. I wished Destro and Machop a good night, and was asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.


	13. Orientation

I reached the bridge nice and early, this time, thankfully, with no trouble. Machop and Destro were still in their balls. I didn't anticipate needing them; surely nothing was going to attack me on a well-traveled bridge or in a popular tourist destination, right?

It was an overcast morning. The cloud cover wasn't particularly dark, though it did serve to mute the otherwise ridiculously bright colors of the city, which made things much easier on my eyes. I was used to Pewter, after all, and it's hardly the most flashy place.

The bridge itself was rather wide, with several lanes for vehicles blocked by large cement barriers and two good-sized pale wooden walkways to either side. A few cars passed me as I walked; I was still getting used to seeing so many driving about. Vehicles of any sort were very rare in Pewter, and any I saw tended to be of the all-terrain variety. Even in Viridian the main purpose of the roads seemed to be public transport and moving goods around. Here in Cerulean, however, I'd already seen several shiny personal cars, which people were using to just cruise around. It must be nice to be rich.

It was a nice walk. To my right the ocean stretched, seemingly forever. To my left I could see the massive Mt. Moon, as well as several smaller peaks and foothills. Far ahead was the cape, at the end of the bridge. If I focused I could make out a few of the resort buildings just inland from the white sandy beaches, as well as the gently sloping land beyond. It took a couple of hours, and a stop at one of the bridge's public restrooms, but I made it to the other side okay.

The beach started almost immediately where the bridge ended. Though I hadn't seen anyone else walking, my paranoia compelled me to walk a ways down the shoreline before jumping in the water; I wasn't going to risk someone nabbing all of my travel supplies, as well as my pokedex (which I assumed wasn't waterproof) and my pokemon (who I had grown quite attached to). When I'd found an area out of sight of the resort buildings, I dropped my things in the shade of a nearby tree, stripped down to a pair of old shorts, and began to wade out into the sea.

The water was cool, but not overly so. The sun had come out during my bridge walk and heated things up, so it was rather refreshing. I stood and let the waves wash over me, enjoying the feeling, then dove down and swam a bit.

To my amazement, I could actually see things underwater if I opened my eyes; blurry, but still, much better than the opaque silt-heavy ponds and lakes surrounding Pewter. The burn of the salt wasn't even that bad. Drifting through the sea there, suspended above the sand, I almost felt like I was flying.

After a couple hours of swimming, the novelty wore off somewhat. I felt like messing around in the ocean might be more fun with others. Unfortunately for me, my stretch of the beach was still empty, and my pokemon were hardly viable candidates. Geodudes and water don't mix, and machop are notoriously poor swimmers due to their very dense, heavy muscle. They tend to just sink. I got out and started towards my things, regretting that I'd forgotten to get a towel; I'd have to air-dry before I put my clothes back on. Which, I realized, was an excellent opportunity for some exercise. A quick jog and two red flashes later, Machop and Destro were on the sand in front of me. Machop greeted me with a wide grin. Destro just grunted, and eyed the water warily.

"Alright, guys!" I said, smiling back at Machop. "We'll be doing some training here today. Machop, you and I are going to do some calisthenics and sprints across the sand. Destro…" I thought back to what I'd read on training geodudes. There weren't any large rocks around to practice throwing, not that I could see, anyways, and Destro was far too weak to spar with Machop, especially considering how small he was. "Destro, chow down on some dirt and practice throwing it around, build your endurance. Okay?"

Destro just turned and started towards the trees. I hoped he'd understood, but figured I'd soon find out one way or the other. I turned to Machop. He nodded.

It didn't take very long to dry off.

\\-/-\\-/-\\-/

Machop and I stood together, surveying the damage we'd done.

The once pristine beach was a mess. There were long trenches in the sand where Machop had sprinted full-force, kicking everything up, and pebble-ridden dirt had been thrown everywhere. Destro had really taken his training to heart. He had looked rather proud, as proud as a rock can look, before I returned him.

I decided to get far away before anyone noticed. Besides, I was feeling pretty hungry. I headed back towards the bridge to see if those resort buildings had any restaurants in them. Machop followed close behind.

It appeared that I'd gotten to the cape just before everyone started their day; the beach and road near the buildings were packed. We waded through loud, happy crowds towards the smell of frying food. Machop seemed rather uncomfortable, being so close to so many people. I could empathize; the atmosphere here was not at all like in the subdued, sparse crowds of Pewter, or even the relaxed groups wandering Viridian. I returned him to his pokeball and carried on alone.

Unfortunately for me, the restaurants were packed as well. I decided not to bother, instead waiting in the line for a small snack shack. The food, once I'd finally gotten it, wasn't the highest quality, but it was still delicious. After, I considered getting back in the water, but if I was to get to the city with enough time to clean myself up and attend that Rocket 'orientation' I really had to get going.

A long walk and refreshing shower later, I was laying on the pokecenter were only a few hours left before 7; not enough time to do anything significant. I settled on messing around with the computer a bit, first looking over the geodude information page to see if there were any solid training regimens that I could have missed. Unfortunately, there wasn't. _There has to be something here_ , I thought. _I mean, growing up in Pewter, I should have picked up at least a few pointers from…_ I gasped, then facepalmed. It took a few moments, but I was able to find the number for the Pewter gym. I pulled out my pokedex and typed it in, then hit call.

There was a couple seconds of buzzing, then a gruff voice said "Gym."

"Hey, it's Calvin Stone. Is Brock there?" I asked.

"Calvin?" the voice sounded mildly surprised. "Sure, let me get him."

A few moments of silence later, a voice that was obviously Brock's said "Calvin! Hey, everything alright, bud? You're not hurt, are you?"

I laughed. "No, everything's fine. I just wanted to ask your advice on something."

"Oh." Brock sounded relieved. "Glad you're alright. What's up?"

"I caught a geodude recently, and was hoping to get some tips for training it."

"A geodude! Fantastic pokemon, reliable and tough. My golem is the best on my team, but don't tell Onix I said that. Good choice, Cal."

I was surprised. Everyone in Pewter knew about Brock's onix; the thing was a monster, usually only released when there was serious need for him, or in top-tier gym battles. But his golem was even stronger? I began to think that I'd lucked out with Destro after all. "Thanks. So, any advice?"

"First off, what level's it at? What does it know? How large is it?" I told him. "Alright. That's a pretty young geodude you've got there; it'll make training it a bit difficult at first, but does provide a good opportunity. Get it working on magnitude right away; easiest to tell it to strike the ground and focus as hard as it can on getting it to shake. It won't do much at first, or even for a while, but the earlier a geodude learns to shake the earth, the more powerful it's earthquake will be once it finishes growing. Also, get it to start rolling back and forth across fields as fast as it can. It won't be very fast, but right now that's the quickest way it'll be able to dodge in a fight, until it evolves. When it comes to food, make sure you feed it as often as you can; it still won't eat a bunch, but a geodude that small needs as much as possible. Got all that?"

"Yeah. Thanks a ton, Brock."

"No problem, kid. Good to hear from ya. But, hey, next time don't call me through this number. It's usually used for emergencies, and I'm not always in the gym." He laughed. "I'll message you a different one; Liam passed your contact info to me a few days back, just hadn't gotten around to saying hey yet."

"Liam? Is he there?" I asked. As rough a traveling companion as he had been, I already missed my mentor.

"He isn't, sorry to say. Headed back out almost immediately. But I've gotta let you go, Cal. Best of luck on your journey, keep in touch."

I said I would, and he hung up. A moment later my pokedex dinged; I added Brock to my contacts.

There wasn't enough time for me to head back out to the wilds and start really training Destro; there was, however, plenty of time to stuff him full of food, which is why I headed straight down to the cafeteria and released him, after piling up a tray for us both. I was a bit hungry too, after all. My earlier meal, while tasty, wasn't at all filling.

\\-/-\\-/-\\-/

The bare spot on Destro's head had formed a thin, rough crust. I took this as a good sign, though I did rub in a bit more lotion, for good measure. After returning him to his ball I fired the computer back up, to see if there was a map I could find the address of that orientation on. Thankfully there was, with a search bar and everything. A bit of typing later and I'd found it. Not too far from the pokecenter, to the south, in the less wealthy part of the city. I figured if I brought Machop with me I'd be fine, though I decided to leave my belt behind; walking there alone at night with a pokeranger belt on might draw some attention. I hadn't forgotten my encounter with those bandits, after all.

I wrote up some quick directions for myself, and headed out. The day had cooled down a bit, thankfully. After that second bridge crossing my skin was beginning to burn. There were quite a few people about, mostly walking, but some in cars. As I neared my destination, though, the streets became steadily less populated. It wasn't too long before I was there; a nondescript red door on the side of a beat-up looking warehouse. After double checking the directions to see if this was really the place, I knocked.

There was a shuffling noise, then the sound of several locks clicking. The door cracked open to reveal a fat, bored looking man holding a clipboard. "Yes?"

"Hello, I'm here for an 'orientation'. Is this the right place?" I asked. The man's eyes lit up, and he grinned.

"You got it, kid! Come on." The man opened the door all the way, ushered me in, and locked it behind us. "I'm gonna need your name and how you heard of us."

"Calvin Stone, I was invited here by, uh," I fished the address paper out of my pocket. "Johnny, after I won a tournament." The man nodded and scribbled that down on his clipboard, then pointed down a nearby hallway.

"Second room on your left. It'll be a few minutes, you're early." I thanked him and walked to the door down the hall, which was propped open, then went inside.

The room was fairly plain, with plain white walls, carpeted floors, and a number of chairs set around a long table. It could have been any ordinary conference room, if not for the large whiteboard towards the front wall and projector off to the side. I took a seat, and waited.

Over the next several minutes people shuffled in and took seats near me, mostly scruffy young men, but a few rough-looking women as well. I nodded to each as they entered, but decided to hold my tongue for now. They didn't seem like they'd be very talkative.

Finally, two men entered, dressed in black uniforms. One of which I recognized. I waved, and Johnny shot me a smile, then whispered something to his companion. They laughed, then walked over to the whiteboard and turned toward us.

"Welcome!" boomed the one I didn't know. His voice was deep and commanding, and it matched him. He had close cropped green-dyed hair, a very angular face, and was obviously well built. "Most of you know why you've come, but for the benefit of those who don't, this is an orientation for the organization known as Rocket. You'll be introduced to our philosophy, goals, and most importantly, what benefits you'd get from working with us." The man winked, and a few people chuckled. "My name is Proton. Even if you sign on, you probably won't be seeing much of me; the boss keeps me busy. But I check in when I can, to show the higher ups actually do care about recruits. This," he reached over and patted Johnny on the shoulder. "Is John. He'll be presenting. He's a good man, so don't be too tough on him. I'll be taking my leave. Hope to see you in the field." Without waiting for a reply, Proton strolled out of the room and swung the door shut perhaps a bit harder than was necessary. Johnny laughed.

"Don't mind him. He's always in a rush. As you heard, I'm John. I'm sure you don't want to sit here all night, so let's jump right into it." He walked over to the projector and pressed a button on the side. It beeped, then a large map of both Kanto and Johto appeared on the whiteboard, all the cities and towns marked. Johnny walked up to it. "Here we are. All of human civilization on this continent, from the smallest hamlet to the largest metropolis. Looks pretty empty, doesn't it?"

I had to agree. Large areas of the map were nothing but wilderness, and that wasn't even counting the mountains.

"So much fertile land," Johnny continued. "Full of natural resources essential to our lives, so much space to live. But, instead, most of us live cramped in large cities, working long hours to pay our ridiculous rent. For what other options do we have? To move to one of the small towns, places so incredibly dangerous they're regularly wiped off the map by wild pokemon hordes? So poor they can barely afford to feed themselves? Why are these our only two choices? I'll tell you, my friends. It's because the League doesn't give a shit about us." There were several mutters of agreement around the room. I raised my eyebrows, intrigued. "We have more than enough people and weaponry to expand, make these lands safe and our nation prosperous. Hell, one Elite Four member could probably clear huge chunks all by themselves! But no, our league prefers us cooped up and enslaved, doesn't even let us make proper roads between our population centers leaving us to venture out into the wilds on foot, and renders us practically defenseless by restricting pokemon registration to those wealthy enough to afford a trainer's license!" the sounds of agreement were much louder this time, and angrier. "We're left adrift in a world of monsters, dependant on the whims of a cruel and uncaring state. The only ones we could depend on were ourselves and our families, and sometimes not even them. But not anymore, brothers and sisters. I invite you to join our family. Team Rocket."

 _A PokeTeam?!_ There were gasps around the room, and I began to push my chair back, determined to leave. All of us in Pewter had heard stories of PokeTeams; cruel, violent criminal organizations that used any means to get ahead. My mother, when she still cared, would tell me about Aqua and Magma back in Hoenn, how they were so fanatical that they'd slaughter one another in the streets, as well as innocent bystanders, just because they disagreed on the importance of land and sea. How it'd gotten so bad that we'd had to sail away, and even then, my father wasn't saved. Others moved to get up as well.

"Wait!" Johnny said. "I see some of you have misconceptions. Please, sit back down, let me explain. If you still want to leave after, none of us will stop you, of course." I took a deep breath, and pushed my chair back in. The man had been nothing but nice to me; the least I could do was hear him out. The others returned to their seats as well, but there was a fair bit of grumbling.

"Rocket is a registered organization. We have public food drives, provide security details, act as a courier service, and perform many other upstanding and legal services. On this level we work within the law to push for change, we're not a crime family. True, it may be _bending_ the rules a bit to grant you all a company waiver and your own pokemon," at that, all grumbling ceased and everyone's eyes locked on Johnny, "but it's far from criminal. I see that got your attention. Yes, every entry level rocket gets his or her own pokemon, and free basic training classes. After you've completed those, we'll find you some work that'll pay well. There's not always much, but we do our absolute best, because our goal isn't just to advance the organization; it's to help all of you be the best you can be. You'll need to. In a world like this, only the strong prosper. In the end, once we've grown enough in strength and public opinion, we'll push for major political change and secure this land for ourselves and our families. And after that? United, there will be nothing to stop us from shooting straight for the stars. Thus, our name. Rocket."

That didn't sound bad to me, but… "Why call yourself Team Rocket if you aren't truly acting like one of those monstrous PokeTeams?" I asked. "Also, what if you've already got a pokemon when you sign on?"

Johnny smiled at me. "Good questions, Mr. Stone. First, though I'm sure they didn't teach you in schools, there have been PokeTeams that were fighting for good, noble reasons. We seek to redeem the term by using it ourselves, and winning. As for already having pokemon, that's no obstacle. Everyone gets one free. You can opt out of the training courses, though."

I thought over everything I'd heard. It sounded like a pretty good deal, but there was always a catch. "Do we have to decide if we want to join right now?"

"No, none of you do. This presentation is over, you may all head home and think on it. If you decide to become a Rocket, come back to this location in two days, same time. We'll get you officially initiated. Until then, good night, all."

Johnny left the room, leaving the door open behind him. We all stood and shuffled out in silence, obviously absorbing what we'd heard in there. It was a lot to take in.

The sun had set. I walked the dark streets to the pokecenter, thankfully without running into any trouble. Back in my room, I lay on my bed and began my meditation practice.

Soon enough, I was asleep.


	14. Training

The pokecenter computer was not very helpful. All I could find was the address of an office building in Celadon and certification that, yes, there was a company named 'Rocket'. No other information, nor anything new to me when I looked up 'PokeTeams'. It was the same stuff we'd been taught as kids; organized crime, theft, murder, bandit camps in the forests, a few heroic tales of league officials sweeping them off the map. Nothing about any 'nobility' or 'goodness'.

Even so, the curiosity was eating away at me. I knew the league were liars, Liam had proven that well enough, and I trusted him. As wary as I was about any who proclaimed themselves a PokeTeam, perhaps Rocket would be worth looking into. I could certainly use the cash, and they specifically said that we wouldn't be doing anything illegal, right? Plus, a new pokemon, pre-caught… maybe they even had a growlithe.

In any case, I had a while to think it over, and it was no use wasting the whole morning on the PC. I packed some supplies, got dressed, and headed out of the city, towards the north-west hills. Destro needed to get started on his training, after all; in his current state, he was way behind Machop.

As soon as I crossed into the wilderness I released my starter, who blinked at the mid-day brightness, then shot me a grin that nearly matched it. I grinned back, and we headed further out.

I found a nice spot on the crest of a grassy hill. The ground seemed torn up a bit already, probably by a wild pokemon, and the view was beautiful. I released Destro and knelt down beside him. He stared up, but made no move to greet me.

"Hey bud," I said. "I talked to an old friend of mine, and he gave me some tips on how to train you up fast. It'll be tough, but you'll be much stronger for it, and if you ever want to catch up to Machop you need to try extra hard." Destro's eyes shifted towards him and he growled, causing Machop to widen his grin and bash his knuckles together. Destro roared, his rocky hands clenched into fists. I laughed. "Not time for that yet, but you'll get your chance. For now, here's what I want you to do…"

Destro listened intently as I described Brock's regimen, and a few moments later we were all hard at work.

\\-/-\\-/-\\-/

Hours later we stopped, me sweaty and exhausted, Machop breathing heavily, Destro unreadable as always, and all of us absolutely filthy. Destro had started by trying to shake the earth; he hadn't accomplished much, nothing that I felt, anyway, but he had succeeded in creating clouds of dirt with every strike. After that, during his practice quickly rolling from place to place, we had a few close calls in which he almost rolled straight down the hill, where he'd be unable to stop. Only some quick thinking and a lucky dive from Machop saved us from having to sprint after him.

The hillcrest hadn't looked all that pretty when we walked up, but it was a disaster area now. I decided that we'd head into the woods a bit and eat in the shade, something Machop seemed to agree with. I set out food for the three of us, sprinkling a bit of powder on each. I noticed that the jar was running a bit low, and decided to use it a bit more sparingly from here-on out. There was still no telling what was in it, but it worked.

As we chowed down I took the chance to think more on how I could hurry Destro's growth along. From all the things I'd read, active combat seemed to be the most effective way to strengthen any pokemon, but at such a low level Destro would be in serious danger no matter what. Geodude his size rely on camouflage to avoid being preyed on, and unless I found him a bunch of weak flying types, who were notoriously vulnerable against rocks, he couldn't…

My eyes had been wandering during my thoughts, and had just rested on the towering Mt. Moon. I facepalmed. _Of course! Zubat!_

My plan for early tomorrow was decided, then. I'd walk to Mt. Moon and let Destro get some practice in, perhaps improve his aim with that improvised rock throw of his. I'd have done it right away, but by the time I got there, trained, and got back to the city, it'd be morning anyway. May as well get some sleep in a soft pokecenter bed first, I figured. It certainly beat a cave floor.

I glanced at the sky, and was surprised to see the sun far lower than expected. Quickly packing up and recalling Destro, Machop and I set out back to the glittering city ahead of us for some well earned rest.

\\-/-\\-/-\\-/

We headed out early the next morning, before the sun had even risen. The streetlights were more than enough to guide our way out of the city, and thankfully the sky lit as we headed up the hills, past the fields and copses of trees. Machop didn't seem very happy to be returning to the cave. Truth be told, I wasn't either. Those zubats were obnoxious, and the men with the snake quite disturbing. I hoped we wouldn't run into them in there; I'd forgotten that red cloth.

An uneventful walk later we stood at the entrance. I released Destro and went over what I wanted him to do. Namely, take down any bat that attacked us without hitting me or letting them too close. He didn't make any noise, so I just assumed he understood me. We walked in, Machop near me to take down any that Destro might miss. We didn't have to wait long.

There was a deafening screech as the first bat swooped towards us. Machop raised an arm, but it was unnecessary. As soon as the beast got within ten feet it was struck out of the sky by a rough stone. It crashed down hard, screech cutting off with a pained snarl. Destro rolled over to it as quickly as he was able while it thrashed about, trying to take off again. It wasn't fast enough, and with a soft crunch Destro smacked it against the cave wall. It fell and lay still.

Destro glanced back at me, and I grinned at him before nodding. "Great job, buddy!" I shouted. He grunted back, but his eyes seemed slightly happier than before. _One down._

We carried on like that through the morning. A few got close enough that Machop had to intervene, and one actually managed to latch on to Destro's arm in an attempt to suck some blood. It didn't end well for the zubat. We had a quick lunch (well, Machop and I did; Destro munched on one of the zubats he'd hit a bit too hard) and I checked the time. I felt we could squeeze in a few more hours, so I led my pokemon a bit deeper in and down a side path. I came to regret not leaving right then.

\\-/-\\-/-\\-/

Destro kept a vigilant eye on the ceiling as Machop and I leaned against a wall. There'd not been many zubat in this section of cave, so I was giving the team a quick rest before we moved on. Machop seemed a little uneasy, and I was about to ask what was up before he tensed. That was all the warning I had before I was struck hard on the shoulder and thrown to the floor. Destro turned and roared, rolling towards us, and Machop jumped over me immediately, arms held in a defensive position. It took me a moment to regain my bearings, but when I did, I saw it.

The creature was enormous, easily five feet tall and eight across. It looked like a zubat, but with a huge gaping maw filled with white fangs that dripped a clear fluid. I stumbled to my feet.

It let loose a piercing screech, causing Machop and I to cover our ears and flinch back. Destro, however, seemed to be made of sterner stuff. A large chunk of the cave floor flew at the giant bat, glancing off it's wings and causing its screech to change pitch and cut off.

A golbat. I'd read about them, of course, but seeing one in front of me was a different matter entirely. I never expected to meet one in Mt. Moon; they're very rare, and tend to stick to the much deeper levels. They were also, I realized with a shock, usually very powerful, and their 'flying' typing would be strong against Machop. I swallowed hard. _We might have to run._

Destro threw another rock, and Machop rushed forward to engage. I called for him to stop, but couldn't hear my own voice over the ringing in my ears. Machop either ignored me or couldn't hear either, and he leapt at the beast, only to be struck by a flailing wing and thrown back. The strike seemed to balance the golbat, who swept down towards him with it's mouth wide open, teeth glistening. I ran towards them but wasn't quick enough. The bat clamped down on Machop's side, no doubt injecting poison, and Machop writhed in it's grip. His fists bashed against the creature to seemingly no effect. Destro got there just before I did, and smashed a rocky hand against it; it cringed back, but only bit down harder.

I didn't know what to do. Machop was in danger, Destro wasn't strong enough to help, and I was unarmed. I followed my instincts. Reeling back, I smashed my fist into the golbat's head, right on the eye. It finally let go, and as it hit the ground I brought my foot down as hard as I could on its wing, feeling it part of it give way. The bat screeched again, but Destro was on it, smashing down repeatedly and doing far more damage than I would have expected. The cave seemed to shake with every hit. I looked to Machop to see him attempting to stand, bleeding profusely and looking very pale. I rushed over and reached for my bag on the ground, pulling out several potions and an antidote and spraying his wounds. My hearing seemed to be returning, because the thumps and screeches of Destro bashing the golbat were more and more audible. Trusting the potions to do their work, I turned in time to see the formerly intimidating bat dragging itself off into the darkness, away from Destro's triumphant form. He shook his fists at it as it left.

I reached down to my belt, and two flashes later Destro and Machop were in stasis. I didn't wait to see if the bat would stay gone; I ran.

As I closed in on the cave exit I noticed my back felt oddly wet. I felt it and my fingers came back bloody. _Fuck,_ I thought, but kept running. It was lucky we'd spent so long driving out the zubats; I don't know how I'd have dodged them all. Finally, after getting out and a good ways down the road, I sat down under a tree, set down my things, and, using my small shaving mirror, checked out the injury.

It was a pretty wide gash, slowly oozing blood, though happily not too deep. I must have hit that cave floor harder than I'd thought. I wasn't too worried about it. A few moments at the pokecenter and they'd have me all healed up; if they could cure paralysis, a wound like this must be a walk in the park. I pulled out my tiny first aid kit and patched myself up as well as I could. It'd last me the trip.

\\-/-\\-/-\\-/

A long walk and some conversations with concerned cityfolk later, I reached the center and immediately passed my pokeballs to the nurse behind the counter, whose eyes widened as she took in my torn and bloody shirt. She immediately set the balls on the diagnosis machine and rushed around the counter, ushering me down a short hallway and into a sterile-looking room. She stepped out and returned with gloves, had me strip down, remove my shoddily placed bandages, and poked at my wound while I told her what happened. The nurse was rather panicked until I told her it wasn't a bite, just a cut from the floor. She relaxed then, but still looked rather worried. After applying some disinfectant and spraying my wound with a few brightly colored substances, she told me to sit on the table and stay put for a few moments. I agreed, and she headed out.

The room was small. Just me, the table, some drawers and cabinets around a small sink, and two uncomfortable looking plastic chairs. I quickly grew bored with my surroundings, and started poking around on my pokedex, going over the near-death experience I'd just had in my mind. If not for Destro's good aim and sheer luck, I'd have probably been eaten by the golbat, and those few zubat we'd hit too hard would have been avenged. _And that was just a golbat. Imagine what a crobat could have done._ I shuddered, remembering Slice's deadly speed and blade-like wings. _I'd have been cut right in half._

Eventually the door opened, and in walked a familiar face. Honey brown eyes met mine and lit up in recognition. The teal-haired police woman smiled. "Mr. Stone! Fancy seeing you here."

I smiled back. "Officer Jenny. Is there a problem?"

"Nope." She shook her head. "Just wanted to ask a few questions. You said there was a fully grown golbat on the upper levels?"

"Not sure how big is fully grown, but this one was at least five feet tall."

She grimaced, and wrote a few things down on a notepad. "This isn't the first attack report we've had from the caves. Something's down there, riling things up. Did you see anything suspicious? Any people?"

I shook my head. "No, just me and my team."

"Mm." Jenny scribbled a few more notes, then tore a piece off. "Well, let me know if you remember anything. Here's my number." She handed me the paper, and I saw her gaze drift down to my bare chest for a moment, then back up to my face. Her smile widened. "Alright?"

"Sure thing, Officer."

She stepped out, and in hurried the nurse, who wiped off the bright foam to reveal my injury miraculously healed. I was also informed my pokemon would be all set in a few hours. Checking the clock, I figured I'd still have plenty of time to clean myself off and take a nap before going out to see the Rockets. And so, without further ado, I headed up to my room to do just that.


	15. Challenge

I stared at the red door for a few moments, thinking on what I was about to do. Part of me wasn't entirely comfortable associating with a group claiming to be a PokeTeam, despite all the benefits they seemed to offer. The Calvin that left Pewter wouldn't have done it. But that decision already seemed so long ago… and I'd changed since. If taking that risk hadn't yet lead to an early demise, surely this one wouldn't either. I breathed deeply, and knocked.

A voice yelled "Come in!", and I stepped into the reception area. The fat man from last time sat behind his desk, seemingly happy to see me. "Mr. Stone! Good to have you back."

"Thanks, uh…" I said, realizing I didn't know the man's name. He raised an eyebrow, then chuckled.

"It's Desmond. Take a seat, I'll call and let 'em know you're here."

I did, and a few button presses followed by some hushed conversation later there was the sound of footsteps, and Johnny emerged from around the corner that lead to the hallway. He gave me a small nod, and a smile. "You made the right choice. Follow me, let's go meet the other initiates."

I stood, and Johnny walked right towards me… then past me, then out the door. I followed, a bit puzzled, as we headed down the street and took a few turns. It wasn't long before we stood in front of a black door on the side of a different warehouse, this one looking slightly nicer. Johnny opened it and gestured for me to go in, then stepped inside himself and closed it behind him. Electric lighting flickered on, and I was greeted by a bare room with three empty doorframes.

"Which way?" I asked, and Johnny laughed. He strolled over to the center of the room and pulled up on a string I hadn't noticed before, opening a trapdoor in the carpet and revealing a ladder. I began to get suspicious. "Why all the secrecy? I thought you said this was all legal."

"It is. But Rocket has a large research and development division; we make and store some very important and dangerous products, and we've had competitors try to steal from us before." Johnny grinned, and began to climb down. "You're about to get the grand tour!"

That seemed to make sense, but I double-checked that I had my pokemon on me before I headed down after him, closing the trapdoor behind me. It was a very, very long ladder. Even with my recent improvement in physical fitness, I was still left a bit winded by the time I got to the bottom… or maybe it was fatigue leftover from my ordeal earlier. While I caught my breath, Johnny typed a code into a nearby metal door, and it opened on its own, causing a gust of cold air and the distant sound of clanking metal, as well as a kind of insect-like chittering, to fill the small room. "Congratulations, you've passed the physical!" he chuckled, and I groaned. "Welcome to Team Rocket, Calvin. Let's go see the sights."

\\-/-\\-/-\\-/

An hour later I, along with several other 'initiates' that we met up with during our walkthrough, finally sat down together to fill out paperwork and officially become a part of Rocket. My mind was reeling at all the things I'd seen; the place was incredible! Hundreds of men in lab coats worked at creating who-knows-what, messing around with contained bursts of electricity and strange purple energies, pressing buttons on huge walls full of flashing lights, keeping enormous herds of paras and parasect in specially UV-lit enclosures to observe behavior patterns and harvest leftover mushroom, maintaining a strange room in which gravity seemed reversed so that water clung to the ceiling and, my favorite part, sending oddly friendly rattata swooping around on robotic wings like weird mutant zubats. All those wonders, and Johnny hinted that I'd barely scratched the surface. Briefly skimming the papers, I left my mark wherever applicable, filled in all the information I could, and passed them up to the front, where a cheery fellow in a nice suit filed them away.

Johnny had stepped out, claiming he had to grab some things. After we'd all finished signing our lives away and were busy chatting excitedly among ourselves about the rest of the facility he strolled back in, holding several large bundles. He placed one in front of each of us, and smiled. "Let this be your official welcome to our family. In this bundle you'll find a jacket with our logo on it, to be worn if you're on official business, as well as a keycard that'll give you access to some of our facilities, shown on the map also included. These facilities can serve as a place to stay, if you grow bored of pokecenters, or a place to contact us directly if you need to. You'll find these keycards also serve as a rudimentary license, with which you'll be able to carry up to two pokemon, but we'll only be giving out one." He paused, noticing most of the room had perked up. "Speaking of, if you'll come up to the front desk here, we have a paper detailing all the species you can choose from."

There was a mad rush almost instantly. Thankfully there were only six of us, else it could have been much more chaotic than it was. Even so, some jostling did occur. I hung back a bit; I already had pokemon, after all, so the concept of another, while exciting, wasn't quite as big a deal as for someone who'd never been allowed to own a proper battler. Johnny and the suited man watched with resigned looks in their eyes as my fellows started to debate the merits of each, one man insisting the poison types were the way to go, another pointing out the versatility of normal types, and the only woman started professing her love of flying types. It was almost funny how these rough, downtrodden looking folks were acting almost like children when faced with the prospect of their first pokemon. I suppressed a laugh.  
One by one they walked up to Johnny and told him what they wanted, to which he nodded and marked something down on a clipboard. A drawer in the desk was opened, and the pokeballs were handed out, though everyone was told not to release them under any circumstances until their training, which was to begin in a few hours. Finally, after the mob had cleared, I walked up and looked down at the list.

Zubat, grimer, koffing, rattata, pidgey, spearow, paras, geodude, voltorb, magnemite, ekans, sandshrew, meowth… there were a few interesting ones, but no growlithe. I frowned, and walked up to Johnny and the man. "Is there any chance I can get a pokemon not on the list?"  
Johnny grinned. "What we have not good enough for you? Maybe. What'd you have in mind, Mr. Stone?"  
"Do you have any growlithe?"  
Johnny's grin faded a bit, and the pleasant suited guy's demeanor changed instantly. He sneered. "That's a league cop pokemon, kid. We don't got none of those."

I raised my hands up. "Just asking, didn't mean to offend."

"No worries, Calvin. I'm sure you didn't know." Johnny forced a laugh. "Let me see what I can do, though… maybe we can get you something similar, eh?"

"Alright, thanks." I said, a bit shaken. I headed back to my seat, noticing Johnny's harsh whispers to the man, and his answering glare. The suited man stood and left the room, and Johnny pulled out his phone and made a call. He was talking a bit too low for me to hear, but I made out 'growlithe' and 'I'm sure'. Everyone else in the room was glancing between us, and I began to feel a bit exposed. Johnny stood, announced that he'd be right back, and stepped out. Poison-loving guy looked over to me. "What'd you do?"  
I shrugged.

\\-/-\\-/-\\-/

True to his word, Johnny returned quickly, an ordinary pokeball in his hand. He gave us all a big grin, like nothing had happened, then spoke. "Alright! Like I said, training's in a few hours; I'm sure you're all eager to meet your new companion. There's a cafeteria down the hall in which you can wait; just head straight, through the double doors. By the way, the coffee and vending machines… are free." He winked, and a couple guys cheered. "Head on out. Calvin Stone, stay back a minute, please."

My new sort-of-coworkers got up and quickly left, though a couple gave me sympathetic glances. As the door closed, Johnny placed the pokeball down on the front desk and beckoned me up. I walked over. I must have looked nervous, because Johnny chuckled. "Don't worry, you're not in any trouble. Mind if I call you Calvin?"

"Yeah, that's fine."

"Cool. Alright, Calvin. We don't have any growlithe, but we do have a bit of a challenge for you, if you're willing. We wouldn't have offered it to any of the others, but since you're a trainer already, you might be able to handle it."

"A challenge?" I asked. "What sort?"  
"In this pokeball," Johnny tapped it with his finger, "Is a houndour. I'm sure you've heard lots of stories about them."  
I certainly had, as had anyone on the continent Kanto and Johto share. Vicious pack creatures that breathe fire and are almost undetectable in darkness, houndour and the rare houndoom are true terrors during long nights in the wilds. Many trainers and even entire towns have been lost to their cursed flame and ravenous appetite. Happily for all of us, they were quite rare, but… I gulped.  
"I guess that is pretty similar to a growlithe." I said, trying to play it cool. Johnny, of course, saw right through me.  
"If you'd like, you may have this pokemon. Though it will grow to be incredibly dangerous, that's kind of the point, isn't it? Besides, canine pokemon are often very loyal to the one who raised them. You control that machop of yours very well; it can help you keep the puppy in line until it realizes whos boss." He pushed the ball towards me. "We actually have a trainer on staff today who exclusively uses fire types. If you'd like, I can call him in and he can give a few pointers. He has a houndoom of his own."

I nodded, and touched the ball. It was warm, though whether that was because of the type of pokemon inside or Johnny's tight grip, I didn't know. He left to get the fire trainer, and I had a few minutes to think on what I was about to do. Not accepting the beast was out of the question, of course. They'd obviously gone through some trouble to find it for me, and I couldn't deny the allure of having such a devastating creature on my team. I'd seen Gym Leader Blaine's houndoom in battle once, before the man stopped allowing his title gym matches to be filmed. It almost crushed the challenger's team single handedly before being taken down by a powerful poliwrath, and even then after severely wounding it. Yes, if I was to become truly strong, I needed that kind of power on my side.

The door opened and in walked Johnny, followed by an older, well tanned gentleman wearing a white jumpsuit, who gave me a scrutinizing look. I stood and walked up, meeting his eyes and trying to exude confidence. I offered my hand. He took it and shook roughly, though not anywhere near as rough as Liam could. His eyes had a strange orange hue, and as he stared back they widened, as if surprised, but he recovered so quickly I couldn't be sure I'd seen it, let go, and smiled. "Calvin. A pleasure to meet you, son."  
"Nice to meet you too, sir."

The man laughed. "None of that sir business. Call me Greg. Now Johnny-boy here tells me you're to train a houndour?" I nodded, and noticed Johnny briefly grimace at the nickname. "Well, you're in for a treat! Great pokemon. I've had my Betsy for… oh, must've been fifteen years now. She was my second friend, ah we've done some crazy things together…" Greg seemed to be lost in thought. Johnny cleared his throat and he started, then gave me a sheepish grin. "Sorry about that, mind wanders from time to time. So! You ever had a dog before, son?"  
I shook my head. "But I had friends who did. They liked me alright."  
"Well, that's a good sign, but it doesn't help much with general knowledge!" Greg chuckled. "So, the first thing you've got to realize is though it's smart and powerful, this is a dog. It likes to be scratched behind the ears, chew toys, it'll fetch for you if you teach it to, though using anything you want to keep is ill-advised due to all the fire… You should train it like you would a dog, after you've established dominance. I'll give you a list of books you might want to buy. It'll help. Second, this is a 'dark' type, primarily. The fire is a close second. Your houndour will be most comfortable at night, and it will be tempermental, prone to rage and bloodshed over the smallest of things. You can head this off by training it right, but keep it on a short leash around unfamiliar pokemon or trainers. Is it male or female?"  
"Female." Johnny said. Greg winced.  
"Ooh, in the houndour line the females are the worst. Well, when you first release her, make sure you're well away from civilization, and your other pokemon are out. She _is_ going to attack you. You might also want some protective gear, and stock up on burn heal. They're vicious little things, but there's a trick to gaining some initial trust. Buy some bacon and cook it real good, till it's nice and crunchy. When she's tired out, toss her a few pieces, then hold one out for her. If she comes up to grab it, that's a hell of a first step. Repeat that for a few nights and soon she'll be beggin' for treats and tummy rubs." Greg laughed loudly, then gazed into space with a fond smile. Before Johnny could clear his throat again, though, Greg recovered and reached into his pocket, pulling out a bright red dog treat. He held it out to me, and I took it. "Throw this as well. Betsy loves cinnamon, and this here is full of it. Now let me write down those books…"  
A few scribbles on a nearby paper and a bit of reminiscing later, I had thanked Greg and Johnny had hurried him out the door, as apparently he was supposed to be doing something important. After we were alone again, Johnny slumped against a wall and sighed. "Well, now that that's over. You ready to get out of here, Calvin? I assume you don't want to wait around for the class, it's really very basic."  
"I think I'm good, yeah." I took a few deep breaths. "Let's get this ladder over with."  
"Ha! No, no," Johnny laughed. "We're not going up that, it'd kill us! We're taking the elevator."  
"There's an elevator?" I gaped. "Why didn't we take it coming down?!"  
"Remember," Johnny said, chuckling. "You had to pass the physical!" I groaned.  
A short walk and an elevator ride later, Johnny and I stood outside the building, on the dark street. He shook my hand. "Again, welcome. Glad to have you, Calvin. You'll be hearing from us soon; we've got your pokedex number, and I think I know a job that you'd be perfect for. Have fun with the houndour." He winked, and I grimaced, then laughed.  
"Yeah, I'll do my best. Thanks for all this, Johnny."  
"Not a problem. Safe travels."  
And they were. I got back to the center with no problems, crawled into bed, and passed out.

\\-/-\\-/-\\-/

Due to my nap, I'd woken very early; the sun hadn't yet risen. And so, after doing morning exercises and meditation to make up for my lack of it the day before, I headed out to run a few preparatory errands. First I picked up some burn heals at the pokemart, which was thankfully open. I then waited outside a local grocery store for a while, walking in as soon as the doors unlocked and purchasing some oven mitts, a thick apron, and some bacon. A few words with the chef back at the pokecenter and I got that bacon nice and crispy. I was as ready as I'd ever be.

It was a cloudy day. Nice and shady, which was a plus when dealing with creatures that preferred the dark, but I sincerely hoped it wouldn't rain. I knew the walk to the city limits well by now, and soon I found myself standing in the same field that my team had torn up training the other day. I figured the less grass the better when it came to letting loose a fire type. Two quick flashes later, Machop and Destro stood in front of me. Machop looked oddly eager, his eyes bright. Destro looked… like a rock.

"Alright guys, we've got a new team member." Machop nodded excitedly, and I wondered how he knew. Surely pokemon couldn't hear from their pokeballs? Destro remained motionless, though his gaze was focused on me now. "She's going to be a little troublesome at first, so I want you to subdue her if she attacks. Try not to hurt her too badly. Both of your 'types' are strong against her, so it shouldn't be too hard. Got it?" Destro grunted. Machop practically danced with anticipation. I raised my new pokeball, pointed it at a spot fifteen or so feet in front of me, and released our new teammate.  
The houndour materialized, and almost immediately fell over, as if unused to suddenly appearing on uneven ground. She scrambled about for a moment, yipping, then got up and shook herself off, hard, pitch black fur expelling clouds of dust around the bony external ribs on her back. It was adorable, and I couldn't help but let loose a quiet "Aww."  
She heard immediately, and whipped around to face me and my team. Her hackles rose and she bared her teeth, a truly ferocious growl ripping across the clearing towards us. The bone plate on her head was angled towards us as she charged, much quicker than I was expecting. Thankfully Machop was ready for her.  
With a quick karate chop the houndour was thrown sideways across the clearing, rolling a few times after she landed. She recovered quickly, through, and let loose a roar that, though not nearly the equal of her evolved form, was still quite loud. A short burst of fire shot from her mouth, which Machop sidestepped. Destro, it seemed, had been paying less attention, and was hit head on; happily, being a rock, he was more or less unaffected. He did respond with a well-thrown clod of dirt, though, knocking the houndour back over and re-dirtying her fur. While she was down, Machop rushed up and punted her straight up in the air. She came down hard, and I winced as I heard the impact. "Alright, enough! Enough!" I yelled, and Machop backed off. Destro dropped the new ball of dirt he had formed up and grumbled.  
I hurried over to see my houndour still breathing, still conscious, but obviously in pain. She growled at me, tried to get up, then winced and fell back down. Looking closely, I saw that there was a nasty gash on her hind leg. I didn't feel like going back to the pokecenter and delaying our proper introduction, so, pulling out my oven mitts, a potion, and a piece of bacon, I took a chance.  
The bacon was tossed at her face, and though still in pain and obviously suspicious, my houndour couldn't help but sniff at it. As she craned forward to taste it, I rushed her from the side and sprayed the potion right on the wound. My aim was good, and the gash began to close immediately; unfortunately, I also received a gout of flame to my stomach, knocking the wind out of me and knocking me straight backwards. Who knew fire could pack such a punch!  
My pokemon saw me hit, of course, and didn't take it well. Machop screeched in anger and leapt at my houndour, Destro did his grindy-rock roar; my breath came back just in time for me to yell "STOP!" Machop paused just above houndour, who was cowering at this point, obviously exhausted. "Enough, I said. I'm fine. Leave her be for now." He backed off, but still shot the puppy several threatening glares. I fished out some more bacon and knelt down.  
"Hey there, bud." I said in the most soothing tone I could. My houndour growled and eyed me warily. "I'm your new trainer. We're going to do great things together. But first you have to trust me." I punctuated my statement by throwing another piece of bacon, which was snapped up instantly. I continued. "These are Machop and Destro. They'll be your teammates, and family. We're all going to train together, me included, and get much stronger. You want to be stronger, right?" Another piece of bacon, thrown and snapped up, this time slightly closer. "I know it's scary, but we're your pack now. I'm going to care for you. You'll see." Bacon. Shuffle. Crunch. "Maybe we can even pick a name for you, would you like that? Something big and scary and tough-sounding, like you'll be, once you've accepted that you're mine and, in a way, I'm yours." I held out the second-to-last piece of bacon, and my houndour inched towards me, stretching her neck out as far as she could and never taking her eyes off of me. I stared back as she finally got close enough to reach and and snatch the bacon, immediately retreating and crunching on it, then looking at me expectantly. I laughed and tossed her the last one, which disappeared in a single snap of her jaws, then returned her.  
She got close enough to take food from my hand, without burning me to death. I count that as a success.


End file.
